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FOKWARD MISSION STUDY COURSES 

EDITED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE 

yOUNQ people's missionary MOVEMENT OF THE 

UNITED STATES AND CANADA 



THE UPWARD PATH: 
THE EVOLUTION OF A RACE 



Leader's general helps to accompany each text-book in the 

Forward Mission Study Courses and special denominational helps 

may be obtained by corresponding with the secretary of your 

mission board or society. 



7 



SLOW THROUGH THE DARK 

Slow moves the pageant of a climbing race; 

Their footsteps drag far, far below the height, 
And, unprevailing by their utmost might. 
Seems faltering downward from each won place. 
No strange, swift-sprung exception we; we trace 
A devious way thro' dim, uncertain light- 
Our hope, through the long vistaed years, a sight 
Of that our Captain's soul sees face to face. 

Who, faithless, faltering that the road is steep, 
Now raiseth up his drear insistent cry? 

Who stoppeth here to spend a while in sleep, 
Or curses that the storm obscures the sky? 

Heed not the darkness round you, dull and deep; 
The clouds grown thickest when the summit's high. 

^Faul Lawrence Dunbar 



E\'35 



Copyright, 1909, bt 

Young Pkoplk's Missionary Movement 

OP THE United States and Canada 



r*" 



spfv'^M 



CIn.. 

JUL 15 T90'9 



^-msch 



"S-i 



.^ 



MY FAITHFUL OLD NURSE 

" AUNT GILLY " 
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED 

WITH TENDER LOVE 
AND GRATEFUL MEMORIES 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Introduction xiii 

Preface xvii 

Editorial Note xxi 

I In the African Jungle 1 

II American Slavery 31 

III First Years of Freedom 65 

IV Industrial and Economic Progress 105 

V Social Conditions 143 

VI Educational Opportunities 185 

VII Religious Development 219 

VIII The Next Step : Need and Supply 267 

Appendixes 

Appendix A Hymn ■> 301 

Appendix B Negro Melodies 302 

Appendix C Bibliography 308 

Appendix D Main and Minor Geographic Divisions 

of Continental United States 315 

Appendix E Proportion of Negro to Total Popu- 
lation 316 

Appendix F Negro Population and Per Cent of 

Total Population 317 

Appendix G Distribution of Negro Population 318 

Appendix H Negro Population for Physiographic 

Divisions 319 

Appendix I Sexes and Ages of Negro Population 

by States and Territories 320 

Appendix J Negro Population for 55 Counties 

Having at Least 75 Per Cent 322 

Appendix K Per Cent of Illiterate in Negro Pop- 
ulation at Least 10 Years of Age. . 323 

Appendix L Negro Population at Least 10 Years 
of Age Engaged in Specific Occu- 
pations 324 

Index 325 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



* ' Aunt Gilly " Frontispiece 

West Africa Village Page 11 ^ 



Typical Group of West Africa Natives 

Witch-Doctor 

Slave Cabins, Lawrenceville, Virginia 

Slave Cabins, " Tlie Hermitage," Savannah, 
Georgia 

Abraham Lincoln 

Cotton Mill, Greensboro, South Carolina 

Cotton Field, Georgia 

General 0. O. Howard 

Class in Domestic Science 

Electrical Engineering 

St. Paul Normal and Industrial School, Law- 
renceville, Virginia 

Farmers' Conference, Lawrenceville, Virginia.. 

Two Houses Owned by a Negro, in One of 
Which He Lives, Charleston, West Virginia 

Negro Cabin 

J. W. E. Bowcn, President Gammon Theological 
Seminary 

Booker T. Washington, President Tuskcgee Nor- 
mal and Industrial Institute 

* * Stonewall ' ' Jackson 

Walter B. Hill, Ex-Chancellor University of 
Georgia 

Napier Public School, Nashville, Tennessee.... 

Jubilee Hall, Fisk University, Nashville, Ten- 
nessee 

St. Mark 's Industrial School, Birmingham, Ala- 
bama 



11 

19 

47 

47 

81 

95 

95 

99 
103 
103 

121 
121 

147 
147 

163' 

163 
173 

173 
193^ 

193 

197"^ 



XI 



xu 



Illustrations 



Graduating Classes, Meharry Medical College, 

Nashville, Tennessee Page 197 

Emory Halls for Boys, Tuskegee, Alabama.... " 205 

Parker Cottage for Girls, Tuskegee, Alabama . . " 205 

Typical Group of Students " 213 

Physical Laboratory " 213 

W. T. Vernon, Register of the Treasury " 241 

James S. Russell, Archdeacon for Work Among 

Negroes in Southern Virginia " 241 

W. S. Scarborough, President Wilberforce Uni- 
versity " 241 

St. Athanasius' Protestant Episcopal Church, 

Brunswick, Georgia " 251 

First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia " 251 

Jubilee Club, St. Paul Normal and Industrial 

School, Lawrenceville, Virginia " 275 

Students, Bishop Payne Divinity School, Peters- 
burg, Virginia " 275 

Women 's Bible Training Class, Howe Institute, 

Memphis, Tennessee " 281 

St. Mark's Chapel, Wilson, North Carolina " 281 



INTRODUCTION 

The longest distance ever traveled by a 
race in just three hundred years was from 
Jungle in Africa to Highway in American 
civilization. The American Negro has 
made that journey. Whatever remains un- 
attained and difficult, whatever the remain- 
ing gap from the front rank as races stand 
at the opening of the twentieth century, 
that fact is unchallengeable, that distinc- 
tion for the Negro is secure. 

It has been a peculiar pilgrimage, the 
strangest in the annals of history. It can 
scarcely be reckoned a pilgrimage as we are 
used to speak of other great human move- 
ments outward and upward. Stage by 
stage from tribal slavery in Africa, to com- 
mercial bondage in the slave-ships, to the 
feudal serfdom of the South, and then to 
sudden emancipation, and then to a daz- 
zling day of citizenship in a republic, the 
Negro came, always thrust on by forces he 
did not originate and over which he had 
no control. 



xiv Introduction 

The author of this book has keenly dis- 
cerned the significance of this important 
fact at the outset in the statement that 
' ' the Negro in America has through a new 
environment escaped many retarding con- 
ditions and has passed with unnatural ra- 
pidity through processes of evolution." 

One may question if the three hundred 
years of such swift and unanticipated 
changes, and so marked by dramatic pres- 
sures, does not place the Negro's progress 
outside the category of evolution entirely. 
Environment is the word that explains 
what we see, and providence is the only 
word that indicates the inscrutable forces 
at work back of it all. 

To some sympathetic students the fact 
that the Negro 's progress has come to him 
so largely without his own initiative has 
not been regarded as a hopeful feature of 
his history. This is, however, to be said. 
Although no driving impulse of discontent 
or aspiration from within sent him upon 
his remarkable adventure of progress, yet 
at each pause of the advance the Negro 
race has shown an inward capacity for 
grasping the gain tenaciously. So if the 
race may not be accredited with pioneering 



Introduction xv 

power, the power of response to advantage 
and the passion for holding on to it may 
suggest a compensation for the apparent 
absence of initiative capacity. 

Those who read, and especially those 
who study, this book will not miss the one 
truth above all others to be kept clear by 
American Christians — namely, that the 
presence of ten million Negroes in this 
country is not primarily a Southern prob- 
lem nor even a national problem which 
puts our political institutions to the test. 
It is profoundly a missionary problem, 
and it puts our Christianity to the test. 
It is the Christian's gospel that is in the 
crucible. 

Speaking as a Southern man, I have 
never dared to risk a Christianity or a 
faith of Christianity as trustworthy for 
myself or mine which doubted the efficiency 
of Christ for all the difficulties that have 
discouraged the philosophers in relation to 
the Negro. 

The Christian '' not only confronts sin 
and claims that it can be destroyed, and 
stands before sorrow and claims that it 
can be transfigured, he stands amid the 
misunderstandings of men, amid the per- 



xvi Introduction 

versions in the purposed order of life, the 
ugly twists that have been given to fellow- 
ship which were ordained to be beautiful 
and true, and he proclaims their possible 
rectification in Christ." 

To the end that we all stand at this angle 
of outlook, '' and, having done all, to 
stand," may this book go forth. 

John E. White. 

Atlanta, Georgia. 



PREFACE 

Many great interests with their problems 
have been presented in the study courses 
of the Young People's Missionary Move- 
ment, but none have exceeded in its impor- 
tance to the nation the subject presented 
in this volume — the American Negro; yet 
the very naming of this subject makes ap- 
parent the difficulty of its presentation and 
of securing an impartial investigation by 
those who read. The author has endeav- 
ored to give a true history of the Negro's 
past, his progress and present condition, 
" without fear or favor " telling of his 
successes and failures ; and now asks that 
the reader — North and South, white and 
black — will lift the bandage of prejudice 
from the eyes, unstop the ears closed by 
sectional animosity, and eliminate from the 
heart race bitterness, that the book may 
be dispassionately studied. Thus only can 



xviii Preface 

the subject be viewed aright, past misun- 
derstandings be corrected, and present con- 
ditions realized, in order to prepare for a 
future of vital importance to both races. 

There is no more need of sentimentality 
and no more room for injustice in the study 
of this subject than in that of any other. 
There will be need possibly to face squarely 
some views, different from those accepted 
in the past; there will be need to forget 
some things that have been told of the past, 
and to remember some things that Christ 
says which there is danger of our forget- 
ting, ere wise, righteous judgment can be 
exercised in dealing with the present need 
of the race that has dwelt for centuries 
like a native alien, ' ' a stranger within our 
gates." 

The Negro has been a valuable asset of 
the nation, yet a bone of contention, to the 
hurt of the nation. I It is time for this un- 
christian contention to cease, it is time for 
the whole nation to unite in securing the 
good of its whole population — every part 



Preface xix 

for its own sake, every part in its relation 
to the whole. It is with this desire and 
purjDOse that the author has written this 
book and now presents it with the prayer 
that its simple, direct narrative may be 
blessed of God to the nation, and the Negro 
race that forms an integral part of the 
nation. 

Mary Helm. 

Helm Place, 

ElizabetJitown, Kentucky, 
June 1, 1909. 



EDITORIAL NOTE 

Through the courtesy of the Council of 
Women for Home Missions, Miss Mary 
Helm, the author, and the Fleming H. 
Eevell Company, publishers, The Upivard 
Path is placed before the public. The orig- 
inal text-book, written by the same author 
under the title of From Darkness to Light, 
has been revised to meet the needs of an- 
other class of students. The Upward Path 
contains eight chapters under new titles, 
but the changes and additions are not suf- 
ficiently extensive to distinguish it from 
the book, From Darkness to Light, except 
in form and illustrations. 



IN THE AFRICAN JUNGLE 



The African is Nature's spoiled child. Throughout 
much of his continent she is lavishly kind to him. She 
feeds him almost without the asking. She clothes him 
with tropical sunshine. If his necessity or his vanity 
calls for more covering, she furnishes it — again with no 
excess of labor on his part — from leaf or bark or skin. 
Everything that has to do with the primitive demands 
of his physical well-being is, as it were, ready at his 
hand. Intellectually, he is untrammelled by tradition or 
practice. He has kept himself free from educational 
entanglements. No a b c's, no puzzling multiplication 
tables, no grammatical rules, no toiling over copybooks, 
harass his brain. . . . 

Aside from his wives and children, a man 's house- 
hold may include slaves. His wives not only may be 
his slaves, but all of his female slaves may be his con- 
cubines. . . . The freedom of a slave is not greatly 
restricted and it is possible for him to accumulate prop- 
erty of his own. But the utter disregard for human life 
in Pagan Africa makes the slave wholly dependent upon 
his master's caprice for his very existence. Punish- 
ment, as a matter of course, may be meted out to him 
at the slightest provocation. . . . 

African Paganism or Fctichism is a religion of dark- 
ness. Its prayers are petitions for mercy and impreca- 
tions upon enemies, rather than praise and thanksgiving. 
Its gods are malignant. Love for them is unknown. 
Hope, in the Christian sense, an anchor to the soul both 
sure and steadfast, is foreign to pagan thought. The 
African conceives himself as beset behind and before, 
above and below, by innumerable ill-tempered spirits, 
all, with one accord, consciously and constantly attempt- 
ing to frustrate his endeavors, and all seeking his in- 
jury and death. He thinks that deceased relatives covet 
his company in " Deadland," and for some time after 
death lurk about their old haunts with snares of dis- 
ease and violence, —Wilson S. Naylor 



IN THE AFRICAN JUNGLE 

THERE are three great questions that Three Questions 
claim attention, when considering the 
life and destiny of a man or a race: 
'' Whence comes he? " '' What is he? " 
'' Wliither goes he? " The first calls for a 
record of facts that mnst be set down 
truly and in proper sequence, with rela- 
tion to that which is past and that which 
is to follow. It involves heredity, and his 
natural traits and tendencies; his ability 
to progress toward a higher state of devel- 
opment ; his power to form a new environ- 
ment, or properly to use the one in which 
circumstances have placed him. The 
second question deals with his present 
status, and sets in array the conditions 
that form and surround his life to-day, 
growing out of his use or abuse of those 
of yesterday — his achievements and his 
failures. The third is speculative, since 
the answer must be found in the future; 
yet it may be safely based on the character 

3 



4 The Upward Path 

and trend of the life that has been. No 
man's to-morrow is an entirely new crea- 
tion, but a result of many yesterdays. The 
past, present, and future of a race present 
successive but continuous steps in its evo- 
lution. 

Law of Progress The uuivcrsal law of evolution, that of 
progressive development from the lower 
condition to th6 higher, has made no excep- 
tion of human life, and the history of man 
reveals his origin as very low in the scale 
of civilization. The Negro race, like other 
members of the human family, began in a 
condition of savagery. Owing to many 
contributing depressive causes, the large 
mass of the race in its native African 
jungle remains in its primitive state. The 
Negro in America has, through a new en- 
vironment, escaped many retarding condi- 
tions, and has passed with unnatural 
rapidity through processes of evolution 
that have left the race as a whole far be- 
hind. This does not mean that he has lost 
race identity, but that race progress is 
possible. 

origin^lceiVy While it Is the Negro in America we are 
to study, we cannot understand our subject 
without knowing something of his origin 



In the African Jungle 5 

and ancestry in his native land, that we 
may understand the hereditary traits, and 
even beliefs, that influence the race as it is 
with us to-day in America. 

The prehistoric Negro is supposed to j^gj^^'^^a*^! 
have entered Africa from the northeast 
in a dwarfish type and using only the 
rudest stone implements. The big black 
Negro type developed in the Nile basin 
and spread due west. These two types 
were, so far as we know, the exclusive 
human inhabitants of the whole of Africa 
south of the Sahara Desert down to 
four hundred years ago, with the excep- 
tion of Arab and Persian colonies, or 
the east coast seekers of gold, and those 
Galla herdsmen who invaded equatorial 
Africa and brought with them the first 
elements of Caucasian civilization to the 
black man. 

The northern coast of Africa belonged JccuJ"^ 
to the white man with some admixture 
of the black. The eastern side became 
the domain of the mixed race which 
may be called the Ethiopian. Below 
the line of 18 degrees north latitude, 
right across Africa, the Negro country 
was almost entirely closed to intercourse 



6 The Upward Path 

with the Cancasian. There they dwelt 
five hundred years ago in a condition of 
absolute brutishness. 
^"''Euro^pea^ Modcm Africa may be said to have 
Conquest y^^^^ rediscovcrcd by the Portuguese five 
hundred years ago. Then came the 
Spaniards, followed by the Dutch, the 
British, and the French. All sought by 
conquest to gain dominion, power, and 
gold; all warred with each other; and all 
made captives of or destroyed the na- 
tives, whose low race status made them 
subservient to the dominant Caucasian 
without imbibing or developing any of 
the racial traits of their conquerors, 
save in a rude imitation of their cus- 
toms and habits, often the worst. This 
seeming adoption disappeared when the 
outside compulsion was removed, because 
their distinctive racial characteristics 
were antagonistic to those of the white 
; race. Individuals may be permanently 
j! affected by environment, but race hered- 
ity is found in the mass. 
UfbTvL^I The Negro race had and has many 
subdivisions, nations, and tribes, differ- 
ing as greatly from each other as the 
nations that go to make up the Cau- 



In the African Jungle 7 

casian race. "We are versed in the char- 
acteristics that differentiate the peoples 
of Europe and their representatives 
coming to this land. We do not always 
consider this in dealing with the Negro 
subject, and do not realize how com- 
plicated is the study. 

Dowd in his valuable work, The Negro oowd-sFive 

' _ , Divisions 

Races: A Sociological Study, while using 
the word Negro as " a general term to 
include more or less black skin and 
woolly hair," makes five subdivisions of 
the Negro type: " First, the Negritos, in- 
cluding the dwarf races of the equatorial 
region, the Bushmen of the Kalahari 
desert, and the Hottentots of the south- 
ern steppe. . . . 

** Second, the Nigritians, including all 
of the natives with dark skin and woolly 
hair occupying the territory of the 
Sudan. . . . 

'* Third, the Fellatahs, a race supposed 
to have sprung from crossings of the Ber- 
bers of the desert with the Nigritians of 
the Sudan. 

" Fourth, the Bantus, . . . occupying 
almost all of West Africa below the 
Sudan. . . . 



8 The Upward Path 

'* Fifth, the Gallas, including all of the 

lighter-colored people of East Africa 

from the Galla country to the Zambezi 

Eiver.'M 

"•""K' These five divisions he subdivides into 

Differences and 

Resemblances many tribcs, having marked differences 
in their i3olitical, social, and industrial 
conditions and habits, and in their reli- 
gious beliefs, or rather superstitions. In 
all, however, there are fundamental re- 
semblances. In all are to be found 
polygamy, slavery, witchcraft and their 
resultant evils. 
characteSi ^^' ^mythc, minister from the United 
States to Liberia and a native-born 
African, says that he had knowledge of 
two hundred tribes on the west coast 
alone, and describes them as more un- 
like in their characteristics than French 
and Germans. This difference is mani- 
fested in color, features, intelligence, and 
possibility for acquiring the arts of civil- 
ization. 
American The Negrocs lu tlio United States came 

INegroes Chiefly _ '-■^ 

Bantus originally, to a large degree, from the 
western coast — the Bantus. Among them 
were representatives of many tribes, and 

1 The Negro Races, xi, xii. 



In the African Jungle 9 

the differences that existed in Africa are 
still to be noted in their descendants by 
those who study them closely. 

Notwithstanding the efforts to gain a a study of west 
foothold in Africa by the nations men- 
tioned, at the beginning of the nineteenth 
century the continent of Africa was prac- 
tically unknown to Europe, save the 
fringes of it. Possibly the best study of 
conditions of the native African can be 
made on the west coast, where there was 
originally the least contact and inter- 
mixture with the white race, and yet 
later a larger knowledge of them by the 
whites. Much that follows will have 
special reference to those on the west 
coast. 

AVliile there was and is a marked dif- Fundamental 

. . Race Traits 

ference between the great divisions of 
the African race, both in physical appear- 
ance and in many characteristics, and we 
find as varied customs and manner of life 
as there are tribes, yet there are funda- 
mental traits belonging to the race that 
can be seen in all. There are different 
types, to a large extent due to the modify- 
ing effects of climate and contact with 
other peoples, but as there is a color-line 



10 The Upward Path 

'' between the Negro or black race " and 
the white Caucasian, or yellow Mongolian, 
so there are mental race traits that make 
as clear a demarcation between these great 
races and differentiate them to an even 
greater degree. The jDigment under the 
Negro's skin and his kinky hair do not 
constitute the chief difference between him 
and the straight-haired white man. 
Emotional, Under some conditions the Negro may 

Impulsive, 

Imaginative be Warlike and fierce, under others he may 
be gentle and indolent; but he is always 
emotional and lacking in self-restraint, 
easily excited either to anger or laughter. 
Impulsive, illogical, he is easily influenced 
by that which appeals to his feelings, good 
or bad. His i:)hysical senses are acute and 
dominate his being even where there is 
knowledge of moral laws that should re- 
strain the appetites or desires aroused by 
them. The desire to possess what pleases 
the eye or taste leads to theft. He is imag- 
inative without being inventive, and is 
therefore a romancist rather than an in- 
ventor, and this power makes him an inim- 
itable story-teller, or a liar that stops at no 
exaggeration. 

He is a child of nature, but has more 




West Africa Village 




TvricAL liuuui' OF West Africa iSativec 



In the African Jungle 11 

fear of than love for his mother. He does k"';""^^'?u 

Outward Show, 

not look with pleasure upon the broad pTeasurl**^"" 
landscape, but studies minutely the animal 
and vegetable life around him, and pos- 
sesses himself of nature's secrets, not with 
any innate love of science, but for his per- 
sonal gratification. His mind is objective, 
and his life is a day-by-day existence that 
left to itself takes no forward step, and 
generation after generation remains the 
same. His vanity and love of show and 
ostentation is inordinate, at times ludi- 
crous in its iDhysical expression, and ren- 
ders him sensitive to any lack of apprecia- 
tion. He is an optimist that has no care 
for the morrow and its needs; this may 
make him lazy or improvident, or give him 
absolute faith in the providence of God if 
he becomes a Christian. He loves fun and 
frolic, dancing and music, and this last 
tendency becomes the favorite expression 
of his emotions and has a marked race 
character. 

It is impossible to give in detail the HhiraStks 
traits and characteristics of a race or peo- ^^" ^^ ^'"^^ 
pie that will seem altogether correct, be- 
cause of the many individual exceptions, 
class modifications, and local surroundings. 



12 The Upward Path 

But there are a few traits so marked that 
they cannot avoid observation and which 
adhere to the subconscious life of the race 
as a tendency that finds expression as 
varied as the circumstances surrounding 
the individual, and may result in a surpris- 
ing reversion to type. 
Little A king or chief in western Africa has 
Formfof"ju"stice little powcr bcyoud that of declaring and 
waging war, deciding palavers according 
to the unwritten law of custom, and in- 
flicting the punishment due. He has no 
rights over the property of others nor 
powers of taxation. There are no higher 
state forms as in civilized lands. There 
is no judicial system. Eules are handed 
down as tradition, by word of mouth. 
Capital punishment is executed by the ac- 
cuser in various modes, formerly by burn- 
ing, torturing, and amputation by piece- 
meal. Blood atonement is everywhere 
practised, and it is a duty devolving upon 
the blood relatives. "Each family is held 
responsible for the misdeeds of its mem- 
bers. However unworthy a man may be, 
his people are to stand by him, defend him, 
and even claim as right his acts, however 
unjust. He may demand their help, how- 



In the African Jungle 13 

ever guilty he may be. " ^ A stranger is 
entertained hospitably, and must be pro- 
tected by the village as long as he is their 
guest, even though he be a criminal. 

Negroes themselves originated the slav- slavery 
ery of one another. Before the slave-trade 
brought to the outside world a larger 
knowledge of them, they held one another 
in bondage, as they do to-day. Slaves are 
the spoils of war, or reprisals for personal 
injuries ; they are used to pay debts, even 
to the extent of the debtor giving his own 
wife and children. The character of slav- 
ery varies in different sections from ex- 
treme mildness to great severity, but 
everywhere is of the lowest grade in 
morals. Labor is intermittent, and the 
slaves, like their masters, are lazy and 
thriftless. They are used, however, in 
hunting and fishing and as soldiers, espe- 
cially in the slave-stealing raids on other 
tribes. 

While tribal life is strong, family life No Family Life 
scarcely exists as we regard it. There is 
no gathering around the table or the 
hearthstone; *' naked children snatch a 

1 Nassau, Fetichism in West Africa, 4. This feeling in the Ameri- 
can Negro to-day renders it difficult to detect crime and punish 
criminals. 



14 The Upward Path 

handful of food and lie down to eat and 
sleep like little cubs." If the family 
gather together at all it is under the com- 
mand of the man to work for him as slaves. 
Degrad^Hnd The womau is a hard-worked slave from 
^oa=morai ^^^^^ momiug uutll late at night. In the 
field with her baby strapped on her back, 
carrying heavy loads supported by ropes 
across her forehead, cooking for her hus- 
band, then watching him eat up every 
crumb, leaving her hungry. '' She is 
bought and sold, married and turned off, 
without regard to her preference, and 
when left a widow is inherited like other 
property by some man of her husband's 
family, perhaps his son. . . . Her virtue 
is held of no account. She has no innocent 
childhood, motherhood is desecrated, and 
when she wraps vileness about herself as 
her habitual garment, it is encouraged. ' ' ^ 
Kongo Women ^ reccut Writer in a missionary magazine 
says, '' Kongo women are on a low plane. 
As children we can teach them to read and 
write, but when grown up it seems a hope- 
less task to teach them anything. They 
have no desire to rise higher mentally. 
They have very little thought, practically 

1 Parsons, Christus Liberator, 71. 



In the African Jungle 15 

no forethought. . . . But savage though 
a girl be, she gives a good deal of atten- 
tion to dress, . . . even though it be only 
beads and a few leaves, and sometimes no 
leaves. . . . She has no consciousness of 
sin, and therefore no fear of the future. 
. . . Morally they are little better if any 
than the beasts of the forest. . . . The 
wrong is far more in being found out than 
in doing. . . . Stealing is general. . . . 
Lying and cheating are so usual that to lie 
is easier to many than to speak the truth. 
. . . Purity of life is iDarticularly un- 
known." 

Polygamy was and is practised every- ^^y^a*J^y 
where among native, unevangelized Afri- 
cans. The only limit to the number of 
wives is the man's inability to buy. The 
number of wives a man has increases the 
respect and honor in which he is held, 
since it indicates his wealth. Young girls 
are sold in infancy, yes, sometimes before 
their birth, to polygamous husbands who 
can take them while yet children into the 
intolerable life of the kraal — a life too brut- 
ish to bear description. Marriage being 
a commercial or animal affair there is no 
romance connected with it. A suitor does 



16 The Upward Path 

not say, *' I love this girl," but " I want 
her, ' ' and pays her price. A woman is al- 
ways treated as property, first by her 
parents, then by her husband. '' Chas- 
tity among unmarried, or even betrothed, 
women is not at all valued or insisted 
upon. . . . The universal understanding 
of adultery among the people is that of an 
offense with reference to married women 
only — not against chastity, but prop- 
erty. "^ 
Relation of The iustiuct of motherhood belongs to 
Children all animal life. With the heathen African 
mother, generally speaking, it is of short 
duration. It is limited to the period when 
the child is dependent upon her for nour- 
ishment. ''If it falls she picks it up; if 
it cries she rocks it in her arms to make it 
hush [or slings it on her back and goes to 
work] ; it is prevented from falling into the 
fire or into the stream, but no affection or 
solicitude inspires the care of it. . . . As 
soon as it can walk it receives no further 
care. . . . "When it reaches the age of 
seven or eight it is put to work, some- 
times before that time. From the tenth 

1 Dowd, The Negro Races, 135, 136. The girl is regarded as 
the property of her father and it is for that reason she has her 
value. 



In the African Jungle 17 

year tlie discipline becomes more severe 
and lashes rain upon it if it commits a 
fault, or fails to do its part of the work. 
His good and bad instincts are developed 
at haphazard. . . . We have lived sev- 
eral years in their midst and have never 
seen a mother embrace a child. ' ' ^ 

The affection of fathers for their chil- SfS'*" 
dren is naturally weaker and less enduring 
than that of the mothers. The love of chil- 
dren for their parents is also short-lived, 
lasting only during the time when they are 
physically dependent upon them. Old or 
sick parents are often abandoned without 
food or care. 

The West Africans have a vague belief ^^SSwo^lS^ 
in a Supreme Being which has grown dim- 
mer and dimmer with passing generations. 
This Being, however, had nothing to do 
with the practical life. He was not even 
an object of worship. Their real religion 
was (and is) spirit worship, or rather the 
fear of evil spirits. " The Negro fancies 
the world is full of enemies, corporeal and 
spiritual, and is daily tortured with sus- 
picions and superstitious fear. Every un- 
usual place or object harbors a spirit pre- 

» Foa, Le Dahomy, HI, 113, 194. 



18 The Upward Path 

sumably hostile. He sees in every person 
who has anything to gain by his death or 
misfortune an enemy who is trying, by 
means of charms, incantations, or witch- 
craft to work him harm. ' '^ Thus the Negro 
spends his lifetime in bondage. 
pearo^fEvn " They believe the spirits of the dead 
can return and wreak vengeance upon 
their enemies, or cause the death of those 
they wish to have with them. With this 
belief wives and slaves are to-day often 
sacrificed on the grave of a chief that they 
may attend him. They believe also that 
evil spirits make their abode in dangerous 
animals and in natural objects that have 
some unusual size or appearance, and 
make propitiatory offerings and prayers 
to them." 
anrlvlrchcTfft It is tho office of the chief to pray to the 
tribal and local spirits for the protection 
of his people, but it is the medicine-man 
who is the powerful personage with the 
spirits. To him the people go when ill or 
unlucky, and he performs incantations and 
dances, while drums are beaten and women 
sing weird songs. This goes on all night, 
and sometimes for three or four nights. 

1 Parsons, A Life for Africa, 299. 







Witch-Doctor 



In the African Jungle 19 

Belief in witchcraft is one of the last to 
be undermined, and its power is both ter- 
rible and relentless. 

The witch-doctor is regarded with great po^er of 

, , - T T „ Witch-doctor 

respect and unbounded fear. '' He can 
not only deal out herbs but can foretell the 
future; he can change a thing into some- 
thing else, or a man into a lower animal or 
a tree or anything; he can also assume 
such transformations himself at will.''^ 
Very frequently he is regarded as inspired, 
or possessed by a familiar spirit through 
whose aid he makes his invocations and 
incantations and falls into cataleptic 
trances or ' ' Delphic rages. ' ' 

Fetichism like witchcraft was and is a Fetichism 
fearful and deep-rooted power among 
African tribes. Fear is the motive of the 
fetich worshiper, though its outward ex- 
pression in objects and rites may and does 
vary greatly in different localities and 
tribes. '' In the heathen Negro's soul the 
fetich takes the place, and has the regard 
which an idol has with the Hindu and the 
Chinese." A fetich, strictly speaking, is 
little else than a charm or amulet worn, 
about the person, or set up at some con- 

* Menzies, History of Religion, 73. 



20 The Upward Path 

venient place to prevent evil or to secure 
good.^ 
Sacrifice ^ pjig Qf stoncs placcd at the foot of a 
tree or a leaf thrown into the water may 
do away with some lurking evil; an offer- 
ing of food may appease a malignant 
spirit. A great evil expected calls for a 
blood sacrifice, usually a domestic fowl or 
animal, though in some places there are 
human sacrifices to propitiate malignant 
forces for the safety of the tribe. Sacri- 
fices are often made to appease the dis- 
pleased spirits of exacting grandfathers 
and other dead. 
Prayer Prayer does not play much part in this 
worship. Their first purpose is to attract 
the attention of the spirit by loud calls, and 
the requests are generally for good luck 
in hunting, fishing, and other pursuits. 
Generally what might be called jorayer is 
the utterance of cabalistic words or sen- 
tences supposed to be a charm against bad 
luck and their chief element is a pitiful 
deprecation of evil — there is no praise, no 
love, no thanks, no confession of sin. 
What Is a Fetich? ^ fetich is any material object conse- 
crated by the oganga, or magic doctor, 

* Nassau, Peticliism in We&t Africa, 81. 



In the African Jungle 21 

with a variety of ceremonies and proc- 
esses, by which some spirit becomes local- 
ized in that object, and subject to the will 
of the possessor. Anything that can be 
conveniently carried on the person may 
thus be consecrated — a stone, chip, rag, 
string, or bead. Articles most frequently 
used are snail-shells, nut-shells, and small 
horns. Its value depends, not on itself, but 
on the skill of the oganga in dealing with 
spirits. 

In preparing a fetich the oganga selects ^^^^^'^^^''^ 
substances such as he deems appropriate 
to the end in view — the ashes of certain 
medicinal plants, pieces of calcined bones, 
gums, spices, and even filth, portions of 
organs of animals, especially human 
beings (eyes, brain, heart, gall-blad- 
der), particularly of ancestors or men of 
renown, or enemies. Human eyeballs, par- 
ticularly of a white person, are a great 
prize, and new-made graves have been 
rifled for them. They are compounded in 
secret, with the accompaniment of drums, 
dancing, invocations, and other perform- 
ances, and are stuffed into the hollow of 
the shell or bone, or smeared over the stick 
or stone. If it be desired to obtain power 



22 The Upward Path 

over some one else, there must be given to 
the oganga by the applicant, to be mixed 
in the compound, either crumbs from the 
food, or clippings of finger-nails or hair, 
or (most powerful!) even a drop of blood 
of the person over whom influence is 
sought. These represent the life or body 
of that person. ' ' So fearful are natives of 
power being thus obtained over them, that 
they have their hair cut only by a friend; 
and even then they carefully burn it or 
cast it into a river. If one accidentally 
cuts himself, he stamps out what blood 
has dropped on the ground, or cuts out 
from wood the part saturated with blood. 
. . . The water with which a lover's 
body (male or female) is washed is used in 
making a philter to be mingled secretly in 
the drink of the loved one. . . . For 
every human passion or desire of every 
part of our nature, for our thousand 
necessities or wishes, a fetich can be made, 
its operation being directed to the attain- 
ment of one specified wish, and limited in 
power only by the possible existence of some 
more powerful antagonizing spirit. ' ' ^ 
"wwte^Art" There may be said to be two entirely 

1 Nassau, Fetichism in West Africa, 83, 85. 



" Black Art " 



In the African Jungle 23 

different kinds of fetichism. Dr. Nassau 
uses the two terms ' ' white art ' ' and ' ' black 
art." The former has been described 
above, and, as seen, its main purpose is 
to protect from evil spirits and to use them 
in preventing sickness and securing 
" good luck." " Black art " consists of 
evil practices pursued to cause sickness or 
death. The Negro justifies the former 
and practises it openly. The practitioner 
of the black art denies it and carries on his 
practices secretly. All over Africa such 
a thing as death from natural causes is not 
thought to exist ; it is always the result of 
witchcraft, and the witch-doctor decides 
who is the guilty party. Any person ac- 
cused is immediately put to death with his 
whole family. '' To bewitch any one it is 
sufficient to spread medicine on his path or 
in his hut. There are also numerous other 
modes of working charms ; for instance, if 
you want to cause an enemy to die, you 
make a clay figure that is supposed to rep- 
resent him. With a needle you pierce the 
figure, and your enemy the first time he 
comes in contact with a foe, will be 
speared." The witch-doctor is able to 
produce sickness or death whenever he 



M 

Company " 



24 The Upward Path 

pleases, and he can produce or stop rain 
and many other things. Hence these wiz- 
ards are greatly feared. When once con- 
vinced that he has been bewitched, the vic- 
tim cannot have that belief shaken by rea- 
son or argument, and can only be assured 
of recovery when stronger countercharms 
are used or the witch has been killed. 
SilLnv" There is a society (not distinctly organ- 
ized) that may be called the " Witchcraft 
Company." It has its meetings at which 
they plot for the causing of sickness, or the 
taking of life. These meetings are secret ; 
preferably in a forest or at least distant 
from a village. The hour is midnight. An 
imitation of the hoot of an owl, which is 
their sacred bird, is their signal call. They 
profess to leave their corporeal body lying 
asleep in their huts, and claim that the 
part which joins in the meeting is their 
spiritual body, whose movements are not 
hindered by walls or other physical ob- 
jects. '' They can pass with instant rapid- 
ity through the air, over the tree-tops. At 
their meetings they have visible, audible, 
and tangible communication with evil 
spirits. They partake of feasts; the arti- 
cle eaten being the ' heart-life ' of some 



In the African Jungle 25 

human being, who, in consequence of this 
loss of his ' heart ' becomes sick and will 
die, unless it be restored. The early cock- 
crowing is a warning to disperse . . . 
should the sun rise upon them before they 
reach their corporeal ' home,' their plans 
will fail, and themselves sicken ... or 
if Cayenne pepper should have been 
rubbed over their home body before their 
return, they will be unable to re-enter it, 
and will die or miserably waste away."^ 

' ' In emerging from his heathenism and ^^^^^'"^ "°" "* 
abandoning his fetichism for the accept- superstition 
ance of Christianity, no part of the process 
is more difficult to the African Negro than 
the entire laying aside of superstitious 
practices, even after his assertion that 
they do not express his religious belief. 
From being a thief he can grow up an 
honest man ; from being a liar, he can be- 
come truthful ; from being indolent, he can 
become diligent; from being a polygamist, 
he can become a monogamist; from a 
status of ignorance and brutality, he can 
develop into educated courtesy. And yet 
in his secret thought, while he would not 
wear a fetich, he believes in its power, and 

1 Nassau, Fetichism in West Africa, 123. 



West Indies 



26 The Upward Path 

dreads its influence if possibly it should 
be directed against himself. ' ' ^ 
^E^portldto '' The slaves exported from Africa to 
the West Indies brought with them some 
of the seeds of African plants held by them 
as sacred to fetich in their native land. 
They established on those plantations the 
fetich-doctor, their dance, their charm, 
their lore, before they had learned English 
at all. And when the British mission- 
aries came among them with church and 
school, while many of the converts were 
sincere, there were those of the doctor 
class who, like Simon Magus, entered into 
the Church fold for the sake of gain by the 
white man's influence, the white man's 
Holy Spirit. Outwardly everything was 
serene and Christian. Within was work- 
ing an element of diabolism or fetichism, 
there known by the name of oheah, under 
whose leaven some of the churches were 
wrecked. And the same diabolism, known 
as voodoo worship in the Negro communi- 
ties of the southern United States, has 
emasculated the spiritual life of many pro- 
fessed Christians. " 2 And alas! we must 

accept the truth that ''inbred beliefs, deep- 
ly Nassau, Feticliism in West Africa, 101. 
2 Ibid., 125, 126. 



In the African Jungle 27 

ened by thousands of years of practice, are 
not eliminated by even a century of foreign 
teaching. Costume and fashion of dress 
are easily and voluntarily changed ; not so 
the essence of one's being." 

This evil religion came with the Negro X**^ ■^^'"2,. 

^ " Brought His 

slave to America, and unmistakable traces ^^S '** 
of it can be found to-day among the ignor- 
ant masses. ^' To overcome the inertia of 
ages, engendered in much of the continent 
[of Africa] by favoring soil and climate, 
and to displace the thirst for blood and for 
gold with a desire for peace and industry, 
requires rare patience and ability of a high 
order. How much greater is the demand 
made upon the spiritual nature, when one 
must create ideas of holiness and virtue by 
a stainless life before there can be any de- 
sire for better living! " ^ This is the task 
that devolves upon those who seek to 
evangelize the African savage, and that 
was laid upon those who sought to evan- 
gelize that same savage when transplanted 
to America. 

The Africa of the eighteenth century is African oniy 

. '-' '' Uplifted by 

the Africa of to-day, except where Chris- Christianity 
tianity has lifted up the Christ at a ter- 

1 Beach, Geography and Atlas of Protestant Missions, 458. 



28 The Upward Path 

rible cost of life and a vast expenditure of 
money. It is a tremendous task that has 
had its chief hindrance in the white man's 
rum and greed of gold which has further 
besotted the race. The fierce cannibal is not 
bettered when he is made a drunken idiot. 
The missionary has found among the 
poor, ignorant savages some noble re- 
sponses to the gospel's call. The Sun of 
Eighteousness is shining in many places 
in the Dark Continent, and in the kingdom 
of God many will rise up and bless Moifat, 
Livingstone, Taylor, and many others. 
The best work of these has not been in 
making Caucasian Christians of them, but 
noble Christian Negroes, in whom the 
highest of which they were capable has 
wonderfully responded to the Christ, and 
by His help and grace triumphed over the 
lowest of which human life was capable. 



SUGGESTIONS FOE USING THE QUESTIONS 

It is a mistake to assume that the questions at the 
end of the chapters can be used by any leader, because 
every list of questions must keep in mind the local con- 
ditions, and the ability of the class. These questions 
are not exhaustive, only suggestive, and should be used 
with discretion by every one leading the course of study. 



In the African Jungle 29 

The leader can easily add memory questions and others 
that will bear fruitful discussion, adapting all to the 
aim of each session. Questions marked * should prove 
helpful in more extended discussion. 



SUGGESTED QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER I 

Aim: To Realize What to Expect of the Negro in 
View of His Former Environment 

1.* What was the original state of the whole hu- 
man race and the law of its evolution! 
2.* Is the Negro an exception to the rule? 

3. Why is it necessary in this study to consider the 
origin of the Negro? 

4. What section of Africa did the Negro enter? 

5. Name some of the main subdivisions of the 
Negro race. 

6. Is there any uniformity of type? 

7. From what section of Africa was the Negro 
brought to America? 

8. Enumerate some of the fundamental race traits. 
9.* What conditions of environment have devel- 
oped these traits? 

10. Name some of the most striking weaknesses in 
the government of the Africans. 

11. How are slaves obtained and treated? 

12. How does the African make his living! 

13. Which members of the family do most of the 
work? 

14. What would you miss most in an African 
family? 

15. Name at least three objections to being the 
wife of an African. 

16. Why do you suppose mothers early lose con- 
trol of their children! 



30 The Upward Path 

17.* Compare the Christian God with that of the 

African. 
18.* What is the difference between our belief in 

the Holy Spirit and the belief of the African 

in spirits? 

19. What is fetichism? 

20. Who has the power to make fetiches? 

21. What is the difference between " black art " 
and " white art "? 

22. Enumerate some of the acknowledged powers 
of a witch-doctor. 

23.* Are religious beliefs easy or difficult to change, 

and why? 
24.* What conditions have made missionary work 

difficult among the Negroes? 

Eefeeences for Further Study. — Chapter I^ 

I. Social Life. 

Dowd : The Negro Eaces, Part II, Ch. VIII. 
Nassau: Fetichism in West Africa, I. 
Naylor: Daybreak in the Dark Continent, II. 
Parsons: Christus Liberator, III, V. 
Stone: In Afric's Forest and Jungle, III, XL 
Williams: History of the Negro Race, III, IV. 

n. Heligiotis Life. 

Dowd: The Negro Eaces, Part II, XXIII, 

XXIV. 

Nassau: Fetichism in West Africa, II, III, 

IV, IX, XIII, XV. 

Naylor: Daybreak in the Dark Continent, III. 

Parsons: Christus Liberator, III, IV. 

Stone : In Af ric 's Forest and Jungle, X, XXIV. 

1 These references are largely confined to the sections of Africa 
from which the American Negro came. 



AMERICAN SLAVERY 



More than any other part of Africa, the West Coast 
was or has been the slaver's hunting-ground. Here was 
the " Slave Coast " of the geographers, and among the 
Toruba west of the Niger there was or has been more 
kidnaping than in any other quarter. 

— Ellen C. Parsons 

The slave had to work, but his work was conducted 
upon the right plan — he was not overworked, but was re- 
quired to do a reasonable amount, without injury to 
himself physically, or to his master financially. . . . We 
had shoemakers, mechanics, blacksmiths, farmers, barbers, 
and butlers, each happy in his occupation. The old Ne- 
gro men made baskets, chair bottoms, rugs, and the like 
to sell, as well as to supply the plantation; the old 
darkies received the proceeds of the articles sold. The 
field-hands who cultivated the fleecy staple of their mas- 
ters' estates were very important factors in plantation 
life. 

John Ambrose Price 

'American slavery was a great curse to both races, 
and I would be the last to apologize for it; but in the 
presence of God, I believe that slavery laid the founda- 
tion for the solution of the problem that is now before 
us in the South. During slavery the Negro was taught 
every trade, every industry, that constitutes the founda- 
tion for making a living. 

— BooTcer T. Washington 



n 

AMERICAN SLAVERY 

THE history of the rest of mankind of- Exodus of 
•^ Israelites 

fers no parallel to the story of the voluntary 

transportation of the Negroes from the 
African wilds to the shores of the Ameri- 
can continent. The exodus of the Israelites 
from Egypt was a voluntary colonization 
scheme organized and directed, as they be- 
lieved, by Jehovah, whereby they hoped to 
escape from cruel bondage to liberty and 
prosperity ; and the distance to be traveled 
was comparatively short. Later their 
Babylonish caj^tivity was an incident of 
war that did not destroy their national life, 
and they later returned to their country. 

The Negro, contrary to his will, without g^^te^d'"^"' 
knowledge of his destination and with no 
hope for the future, was forcibly carried 
thousands of miles across an unknown sea 
to an unknown fate in an unknown land. 
Thus uptorn as a weed from his native 
soil and all its surroundings and his past 
obliterated, difficult indeed would it have 



34 The Upward Path 

been for him to believe that in the distant 
future his new home and its bondage was 
to work out for him a higher destiny. Seek 
to evade it as we may, we cannot escape 
the conviction that the Almighty's hand of 
love overshadowed the poor, unconscious 
victim and made the '^ wrath of man " to 
praise him in the future good of the 
Negro. Joseph said to his brethren who 
had sold him into slavery — " Ye meant 
evil against me ; but God meant it for good, 
to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save 
much people alive. ' ' ^ 
Slavery the As tho upward movcmeut of the race 

First Step , -^ 

proceeds, it becomes more and more evi- 
dent that American slavery with its dis- 
cipline and training was the first great 
step in the evolution of the African savage 
into a citizen of civilization. With this 
preview of its resultant purpose, the stu- 
dent takes a deeper interest in noting the 
beginning, the conditions that existed, and 
the close of the period of Negro bondage 
in the United States. 
Nations Ei'tSd While slavcry existed in all African 
lavery ^^jj^gg throughout the continent as far as 
known, it was left to the civilized nations — 

1 Gen. 1. 20. 



American Slavery 35 

Portugal, Spain, England, Denmark, and 
France — to extend the traffic by exporting 
slaves to other lands. This slave-trade be- 
gan in the fifteenth century, and continued 
for nearly four centuries. To Protestant 
Christian England belongs the largest 
share of the infamy involved, for with her 
usual impelling force she soon outstripped 
all competitors. The traffic was legalized 
in 1562, and charters were granted to trad- 
ing companies. She supplied her own col- 
onies with slaves, and her merchants se- 
cured the monopoly of the Spanish colonial 
slave-trade. The United States followed 
the example set by the mother country and 
was not behind her in energy. 

The horrors of the slave-trade have been ^,^"'>f^ of 

SIave=traae 

often described; they could not be exag- 
gerated. There were continual scenes of 
raid, burning villages, fettered slaves, 
cruel beatings, and weary marches. The 
weak often perished on the way to the 
slave-ships which were waiting at the 
coast. Then followed the horrors of the 
" middle passage," when men, women, and 
children were shackled and packed to- 
gether in the ship's hold in suffocating 
masses to die or to live, as the chance might 



36 The Upward Path 

be. Imagination refuses to picture the 
agony the unfortunate captives must have 
endured during those long weeks, ere they 
were unloaded in a strange land, where 
they were to begin an entirely new exist- 
ence. 
Opposition to The conscience of Christendom was not 

Slave=trade 

sleeping and her voice was not silent. Pitt 
and Fox fought against the slave-trade in 
England, and the opposition of some of 
the American colonies was great. As early 
as 1760, " an act of total prohibition in 
South Carolina was disallowed by Great 
Britain." In 1772, Virginia appealed to 
the King against '' the pernicious com- 
merce." Thomas Jefferson put into his 
original draft of the Constitution a clause 
indicting George III for maintaining this 
slave-trade as a " piratical warfare." 
The clause was stricken out by Congress. 
Legislation, limiting and prohibitive, was 
passed again and again by the original 
thirteen States. Massachusetts passed 
such a law as early as 1641, at the time 
when her own Boston merchants were the 
largest importers. 
Date of First Statements differ as to the date of the 

Slaves in the 

United States landing of the first African slaves in what 



American Slavery M 

is now the United States. One is that a 
Spanish ship brought the first load as early 
as 1526. Another is that they were 
brought by the Dutch, twenty in number, 
in 1619, and were landed at Jamestown, 
Virginia. This last date seems to have the 
best authority. 

In 1807 laws to abolish the slave-trade siavi&e^ 
were passed in both England and the 
United States and these went into effect 
the next year. At that time, after one 
hundred and eighty-eight years of the 
trade, over 1,000,000 Negroes were in the 
United States. In 1860, fifty-three years 
later, that number had increased, by birth 
and continued importation, to 4,441,830. It 
has been claimed, and with a large degree 
of probability, that the law was often 
evaded and that slaves were smuggled into 
the country in large numbers at first, but 
that the numbers gradually decreased as 
the danger and frequent loss rendered the 
trade unprofitable. 

When first introduced into this country segregation in 

J.1 -NT , , T . . t*'^ South 

the JNegroes were scattered m varymg 
numbers throughout the colonies, or the 
States, as they became later. The condi- 
tions of climate and not public opinion 



38 The Upward Path 

influenced their distribution, and, finally, 
brought about their almost entire segrega- 
tion in the South. The Northern slave- 
holders, finding them unprofitable in cold 
latitudes, did not pass emancipation laws 
until nearly all had been sold into the 
Southern States, where the more genial 
climate made their labor more productive. 
Thus the South became charged with the 
life and destiny of the American Negro — 
a responsibility greater than the profit to 
be gained and one that was to affect its 
own destiny, complicate its own life so- 
cially, industrially, and politically, and 
leave it involved in a gigantic problem 
that must be worked out by the two races 
as they live side by side and work together 
with God. 
savageSeti^ "^^^ pitiable condition of the Negroes 
Civilization ^jjeu they were landed on our shores can 
hardly be described, yet the imagination 
has many solid facts on which it may paint 
a picture. The rapid survey given of the 
condition of the African in his native wilds 
showed his state to be that of a degraded 
savage. To this must now be added the 
horrible results of his long voyage. Physi- 
cally he was often suffering from disease 



American Slavery 39 

and cruel wounds, sometimes crippled, 
maimed, or mutilated. Mentally he was 
absolutely ignorant of the demands of civ- 
ilization, its dress and food, its customs, 
its labor, and its language. Morally he was 
generally vicious in habits, and displayed 
only the basest standard of life. Spirit- 
ually it was inevitable that he would be the 
fearful slave of belief in evil spirits, with 
a religion that was a foul compound of 
animalism and witchcraft. Yet these poor, 
wretched savages were human beings, with 
possibilities of suffering and sorrow, love, 
happiness, and righteousness that God 
alone knew at that time, but which the 
white people were to learn. 

There was no thought of preserving f am- Restraint 

•^ i- o Necessary for 

ily ties — these were destroyed when the Protection 
victims were sold in Africa. Often utter 
strangers to each other, perhaps of war- 
ring tribes, and speaking different dia- 
lects, they were bartered like a herd of ani- 
mals to white American masters for whom 
they naturally felt hatred as well as fear. 
These sentiments constantly threatened to 
break out into open mutiny, and they often 
did so; therefore close, often severe, con- 
trol was resorted to in order to restrain 



40 The Upward Path 

them and insure the protection of the 
owners. 
New Experiences They were Compelled to labor with un- 
known tools by commands given in an un- 
known tongue; to wear irksome clothing, 
to eat unfamiliar food; to submit to un- 
known and, to them, unreasonable re- 
straints in habits and morals. Civilization 
had its price for the savage African, as 
it has for all peoples. 
Slavy iLk ^^ ^^® other hand, we can hardly con- 
ceive of the magnitude of the task which 
devolved upon the owners of these savages 
in civilizing, training, and evangelizing 
them. Such a task might well fill an 
angel's hands. And yet in a large degree, 
considering the circumstances, it was ac- 
complished, as we must believe, when we 
compare these imported Africans with 
their descendants at the time of their eman- 
cipation. 
A National Sin It is not ucccssary here to enter upon 
an arraignment of or defense of slavery. 
If it was a sin it was a national sin, and 
the nation as a whole is responsible for it. 
And well may the people of all sections 
thank God that the institution of Negro 
slavery no longer exists in our country. 



American Slavery 41 

Justice demands, however, that a true a Burden of 

Misunderstand- 

narration of the conditions of American '"« 
slavery be given, to exonerate a great and 
noble peojole from the accumulated misrep- 
resentations of generations — a people who, 
while seeking to fulfil rightly their in- 
herited task, bore a burden that none but 
themselves understood, not the least of 
which was the misunderstanding of those 
who had helped to lay that burden upon 
them. Surely the time has come when all 
are willing to hear something of the true 
story of American slavery. 
Justice to the Negroes also demands Negro capawe 

*-" of Progress 

that it be shown that they were capable of 
taking advantage of the restraints of civil- 
ization, the industrial training and the gos- 
pel opportunities of slavery, to rise to a 
higher plane than that of their African an- 
cestors. 

The limited extent of slave ownership Extent of 

-■- Ownership 

IS often a matter of surprise to those who 
learn the facts for the first time. Pro- 
fessor G. W. Dyer in his valuable work. 
Democracy in the South Before the Civil 
War, presents the following statistics: 

From the census of 1860 we learn that 
the total white population in the Southern 



■' 



42 The Upward Path 

States was 8,179,356; while the number of 
slaveholders in all these States was only 
383,637 and the total number of slaves was 
3,948,713, the average number of slaves to 
each owner was 10. Only about one-fourth 
of the Southern men owned any slaves at 
all, and one-fifth of that one-fourth owned 
only one slave; and more than half of all 
the slaveholders owned less than five. 
There were about 2,300 men that owned 
more than 100, and only 14 that owned 
more than 500. 
Slave Labor Professor Dyer says further: ''Slave 

expensive '' ♦' 

labor was just as expensive in the South 
before the war as free labor would have 
been under similar economic conditions. 
. . . The owners had to look after every 
interest of the slave — his food, clothing, 
shelter, health, his habits and his disci- 
pline — and not for the working slave only, 
but for those incapacitated for work by 
sickness, old age, and infancy, and this in 
hard times as well as flush, for the un- 
worthy and for the worthy. . . . The 
fact that hundreds of thousands of free 
white men were employed in the South be- 
fore 1860 and received as high wages 
as farm-hands in the North shows that 



American Slavery 43 

there was no special advantage in slave 
labor. ' ' ^ 

The selling of slaves, especially in a way Thousands of 
to sunder members of families, was not so ^^^^ ^^«''«^« 
frequent as is sometimes imagined. In 
1860 there were thousands of slaves who 
had been owned for generation after gen- 
eration by the same family. There were 
also many thousands who had been emanci- 
pated by their masters. Before the Civil 
War the free Negro population in the 
South was estimated at over a quarter of 
a million. While by far the larger number 
of these were idle and shiftless, many were 
honest and industrious artisans who plied 
their trades among both white and black 
people. Some of this better class o^Tied 
valuable property, and in a few instances 
they were not only landowners but slave- 
owners. 

There were a large number of slaves Principal 
who served a regular apprenticeship at 
some trades and became skilled workmen. 
Some of these rendered valuable service on 
the plantations, others were hired out by 
their masters to contractors, and still 
others were allowed to '' hire their own 

^ Dyer, Democracy in the South Before the Civil War, 41-44. 



Occupations 



44 The Upward Path 

time " and make monthly or annual set- 
tlement with their masters. The Negro 
artisan worked side by side most amicably 
with the white man following the same, 
i;rade. 
Agriculture and The vast maioritv of the slaves were em- 

Domestic Service 

ployed in agriculture and domestic service. 
There was a marked difference between 
those known as " farm-hands " and the 
'' house servants." The position of the 
latter being regarded as higher and the 
work lighter, it was eagerly desired and 
sought. This difference was more marked 
on large plantations in the far South than 
on the small farms in the Middle States. ^ 
Plantation Life The plantation Negroes were generally 
the latest arrivals from Africa and those 
of the lowest tribal type. These were be- 
ing constantly reenforced by the worst 
specimens from other sections. Being! 
" sold down South " was frequently the'^ 
punishment for offenses that now send 
them to the penitentiary. The threat of it 
often proved an efficacious restraint upon 
bad propensities. 
Overseers Qn the large sugar, rice, and cotton plan 

Sometimes Cruel 0077 

tations where, they dwelt in large numbersj 
and came very little into contact with the 



American Slavery . 45 

white race, the gain for the Negroes for 
a long time was only in settled habits of 
industry and in learning obedience to law. 
It seemed impossible for even this to be 
accomplished without force, and, since the 
ordinary plantation overseer was not al- 
ways what he ought to have been any more 
than industrial subordinates or city police 
are to-day, brutal force was undoubtedly 
often used rather than Christlike patience 
and instruction in righteousness. This 
was more frequently the case where plan- 
tations suffered from the evils of " absen- 
teeism," but many times the returning 
owner indignantly corrected abuses and 
discharged the overseer. In the hands of 
wicked men the power of the owner was 
abused, as power always has been and al- 
ways will be by the unrighteous the world 
er. It should not, however, be forgotten 
that many of the punishments inflicted by 
the owner upon slaves were for such of- 
fenses as in this day send both white and 
black culprits to the jails and peniten- 
tiaries. The effect upon the character of 
the oif ender and in the prevention of crime 
was far more satisfactory, especially if 
the criminal was young. 



46 The Upward Path 

An^Honorabie rJ^•^Q large majority of Southern slave- 
holders felt an honorable responsibility for 
the care and protection of their slaves, 
aside from pecuniary interest, even though 
such care should lessen their financial 
profits. Beyond this, they felt an indul- 
gent compassion, that deepened into love 
for the helpless folk dependent upon them. 
They looked at them en masse and saw ra- 
cial inferiority in mind, body, and morality, 
and did not expect from them what they 
did from white people. Any one going 
upon a plantation to-day where Negroes 
work in large niunbers, either in America 
or elsewhere, will receive the same impres- 
sion without, possibly, the same indulgent 
feeling. 
""Soes The plantation Negroes lived in loca- 
tions known as '' the quarters," usually, 
each family in a house of one or two rooms. 
The character of these houses as to ap- 
pearance and comfort varied with the 
financial ability or humanity of the owner. 
Some slave-owners were poor or involved 
in debt, and lived poorly themselves, while 
others, alas! lacked the Christly love that 
gives attention to the conditions of the un- 
fortunate. Generally speaking, the houses 





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Slave Cabins, Lawkexceville, Virginia 




Uopynght, Umlcr«uod aiul L inlfi« uud 

Slave Cabins, " The Hermitage," Savannah, Georgia 



American Slavery 47 

for the slaves would bear comparison with 
the homes of the peasant class in many- 
lands, and were far less crowded and more 
sanitary than the houses occupied by the 
lower class of laborers, white or black, in 
some of our cities to-day. 

The Negroes of the South corresponded usuaiiy weir 

Cared for by 

to the poor people of other countries, and owners 
poverty anywhere means the lack of lux- 
ury and, sometimes, of the necessities of 
life; yet these last the Southern slave 
never lacked. To this statement there are 
a thousand witnesses to one against it. ' 

The food and clothing given them were good 
and sufficient for the climate — very plain, 
of course, but satisfying and clean. Where 
the climate required a fire there was al- 
ways an ample supply of fuel, and there 
never was any rent to pay, or bills for 
physician and drugs. The old, the young, 
and the sick were even more the recipients 
of such provision than the laborer, from 
whose shoulders the burden of caring for 
these was lifted. 

The hours of work, as is usual for farm- Labor 

IT Till n Regulations 

hands, were regulated by the length of the 
season's day, the weather, and the physi- 
cal condition of the individual. No work 



48 The Upward Path 

was required of the old or feeble beyond 
what they were capable of rendering. The 
expectant mother and the nursing mother 
were guarded from overwork. On some 
plantations mothers were given no work 
that took them away from their little chil- 
dren, on others the children were placed in 
the care of a woman called a " tender," 
who kept them in what we now call a day 
nursery or creche. There was no thought 
of child labor as it is now understood ; gen- 
erally only a few trivial tasks were given 
children before they were ten or twelve 
years old, and later on their work was reg- 
ulated to suit their years and strength. 
They were not confined as our white chil- 
dren are to-day in mills and factories and 
sweat-shops. 
Houdjiys^and Saturday afternoons, Christmas week, 
and the Fourth of July were by almost 
universal custom regarded as holidays, 
and no work was required except feeding 
the stock. These holidays were spent by 
the thrifty in the truck gardens usually 
allowed them, or on any kind of job work 
by which they could make money for them- 
selves, such as the making of baskets, 
brooms, shuck mats, and similar articles; 



American Slavery 49 

while the fun-loving spent them in hunt- 
ing, fishing, dancing, and play. Sunday 
was a day of rest, wherein they loafed or 
slept, except during the hours of worship. 
Unless the master was actively opposed 
to Christianity, which was rare, regular 
religious services were conducted in a 
house he had built for the purpose, or in 
a barn or gin house cleaned for the occa- 
sion, the preacher being either a white 
" missionary " or one of their own race — 
sometimes the master or mistress. 

The marriage relation was encouraged Mamage 
by owners and accounted honorable among 
themselves, though the disregard of it was 
frequent, as is the case with the ignorant 
class everywhere. When compared with 
the unrestrained licentiousness of their 
savage past, this was slight indeed. 

To sell liquor to a slave was illegal and Brunkenness and 
subjected the seller to punishment; hence ««™''''"8 
there was little drunkenness among them, 
and there was little occasion or opportu- 
nity for gambling on the plantation. The 
restraints of slavery saved them from 
these vices that to-day are doing much to 
destroy them. 

Negroes were not allowed to leave the 



50 The Upward Path 

Restrictions^nd plantation after nightfall without a writ- 
ten permit from the owner. If one was 
found outside without this " pass," he was 
subject to arrest by the rural police called 
*' patrols," or, as the Negroes pronounced! 
it, '' patter-rollers." This restraint pre-; 
vented much roguery and was especially 
helpful in keeping young men from night 
dissipation, and it left them in better con- 
dition for the morrow's work. Within the 
bounds of the plantation there was little 
or no restraint placed on their frolics and 
fun-making. On such occasions their joy- 
ous temperament and natural gayety found 
such expression as made it hard to believe 
that they were miserable and unhappy. 
Marriage off the plantation was not en- 
couraged. In some cases it was forbidden. 
The custom in such marriages was to allow 
the husband, if the distance was not great, 
to go every night to the home of the wife ; 
if distant, to go Saturday night and remain 
till Monday morning. The children of 
such marriages belonged to the owner of 
the wife. 
bSv^hfabfe There were no schools for the Negroes, 
Training ^^^ ^^j^ ^^^ ^^^ exccptious the plantation 

Negroes were absolutely illiterate, yet 



American Slavery 51 

there was a certain amount of education 
and mental development that came with 
training in diversified industries, and with 
the learning of a new language by those 
who were brought to this country as 
adults. There was also much verbal teach- 
ing among them in the way of songs, reci- 
tations, and story-telling. A considerable 
amount of valuable information was im- 
parted by their " wise ones," gained by 
close observations of nature in its various 
forms, to which they added shrewd ''say- 
ings " and wise i^roverbs full of common 
sense. 
The " house servants " formed a class Domestic 

Servants 

quite distmct and socially above the field- 
hand, and even among them there were de- 
grees, something after this fashion: the 
children's nurse, " M'ammy," the butler, 
the carriage driver, the gentleman's body- 
servant, the " lady's-maid," the cook, the 
gardener. All of these held sway in cer- 
tain realms of their own, the dignity of 
which they tried to impress on others, 
while they enjoyed its advantages and i^er- 
quisites. Next to these was the " head 
man" (known only in fiction as the 
'' driver ") of the farm-hands. He was 



52 The Upward Path 

most frequently a man of fine character 
as well as of physical prowess, and re- 
spected alike by white and black. 
House Servants The housc scrvants were generally 
chosen from among their fellows because 
of their intelligence and good appearance, 
or because their jDarents had been in the 
house. Their close association — for it was 
very close, intimate, and affectionate — 
with the white family and their guests 
gained for them a certain sort of culture 
of mind, morals, and manners totally un- 
known to the mass of their people. Many 
of them read well. They were loyal to the 
last degree to the white family and its 
traditions, identifying themselves with it 
to the extent of feeling themselves a part 
of it in joy or sorrow, and having a sense 
of ownership in all that belonged to it. 
They were in turn trusted and loved by 
their white people, and thus was formed a 
bond so strong that not even the great war 
was able to sunder it. 
'^%™?si1ng Those who did not know personally the 
relation between the black '' Mammy " 
and her nurslings can never understand 
it. The heart grows tender, the eyes 
moist, in recalling the dear black face that 



American Slavery 53 

so often bent over the writer of these 
pages and the sheltering arms that held 
her in sleep or sickness, the sympathetic 
consoler in childish troubles and the in- 
structor in manners, all summed up in 
*' Mammy," otherwise '' Aunt Gilly," 
'' faithful until death." She was a type 
of hundreds of others, and all through the 
South there are white men and women who 
have the same tender memories of their 
loving nurses. The same feeling in a les- 
ser degree extended to many " uncles " 
and " aunts " and playfellows. 

Many a Southern home was a better Home a 
model for an industrial school than some 
that have been established of late years 
for white and black girls. The training 
was individual, thorough, practical, and 
the result the finest domestic service that 
ever existed. The men and women who 
owned the Negroes were not luxurious 
idlers, as they have often been represented. 
The Southern mistress, besides being a no- 
table housekeeper and a devoted mother of 
many children, was often a combination of 
" a head resident in a settlement," a 
" health officer," a ^' superintendent of 
nurses, "a'' director of industries, "a'' con- 



54 The Upward Path 

fidential adviser and umpire " of fam- 
ily and neighbor difficulties, with many 
minor duties. She loked after the sanitary 
condition of the " cabin " and the personal 
habits of its occupants, and required clean- 
liness. She visited the sick constantly, and 
often administered the medicine and pre- 
pared the food with her own hands. She 
looked after the babies, and instructed the 
mothers in their care. She comforted the 
sorrowing, rejoiced with the happy, and, if 
she herself were a Christian, pointed the 
dying to Christ. She or her daughters 
were often the Sunday-school teachers of 
the children, and read the Bible to the old 
and sick in their cabins. 
witch=doctors Imported along with others of their 

Imported i a 

tribe came the " witch-doctors," or medi- 
cine-men, and these by their knowledge of 
the secret things of their profession and by 
the desire to preserve their power over the 
people (with the gains of it) did more than 
anything else to liinder the evangelization 
of the Negroes. Fear of the malevolent 
use of the witch-power was the largest 
cause of their influence over the timid ; and 
with the wicked there was a desire to se- 
cure their help in furthering their own evil 



American Slavery 55 

purposes. This power was possessed as 
often by women as men, and was a terrible 
weapon when directed by jealousy, envy, 
and anger, and its results were manifested 
in the failing health and sometimes in the 
death of its victims. The explanation 
may be found in some degree in mental 
suggestion and nervous terror, but also, 
though in possibly a lesser degree, in the 
use of poison, the secret of which was 
brought from Africa. This practice of the 
' ' black art ' ' of f etichism was hidden with 
cunning wisdom from the whites, espe- 
cially from the master, except in sad cases 
of sickness when the sufferer would be pro- 
nounced conjured. For these medical 
treatment was of little avail. 

'' It was a secret religion, that lurked FeticWsm 
thinly covered in slavery days, and that 
lurks to-day beneath the Negro 's Christian 
profession as a white art, and among non- 
professors as a black art ; a memory of the 
revenges of his African ancestors ; a secret 
fraternity among slaves of far distant 
plantations, with words and signs — the 
lifting of a finger, the twitch of an eyelid — 
that telegraphed from house to house with 
amazing rapidity (as to-day in Africa) 



56 The Upward Path 

current news in old slave days and during 
the Civil War ; suspected but never under- 
stood by the white master; which, as a 
superstition, has spread among our igno- 
rant white masses as the ' Hoodoo. ' Vudu, 
or Odoism, is simply African fetich- 
ism transplanted to American soil."^ 

gSHHRetam i'jf^ jg almost impossible for persons 
who have been brought up under this sys- 
tem ever to divest themselves fully of its 
influence. It has been retained among the 
blacks of this country, though in a less 
open form, even to the present day, and 
probably will never be fully abandoned un- 
til they have made much higher attain- 
ments in Christian education and civiliza- 
tion. "^ 
Diffkum'el ^ statement of these conditions shows 

TrInsSed thc great difficulty that was encountered 
in teaching the gospel of purity and truth 
to a people many of whom were born sav- 
ages, or were but one generation removed 
from savagery. Yet faithful men and 
women of God wrought a great work for 
their Lord in bringing thousands, yes, hun- 
dreds of thousands, of these poor heathen 
and semi-heathen to know and to love the 

1 Nassau, Fetichism in West Africa, 274, 275. 
9 Wilson, Western Africa. 



American Slavery 57 

Christ. There have been many " simple 
annals of the poor " Christian Negroes 
preserved that thrill the heart to gladness 
in Jesus, for that He hath redeemed unto 
Himself many peoples of many nations — 
stories of humble faith and unswerving de- 
votion to God, of patient unselfishness 
toward others, of joy in the Lord, and of 
power in intercessory prayer for the 
sinner. 

In considering the Christianization of considerations 
the Africans who dwelt in this country as 
slaves, conditions should be frankly con- 
sidered in order to understand not only 
the missionary efforts of the Churches and 
Christian workers, but also the difficulties 
and, at times, the almost insurmountable 
hindrances that attended those efforts and 
lessened their results. 

1. The public opinion of an age that per- Pubnc^opinion 
mitted the slave-trade was not favorable 

to a Christlike attitude toward the slave, 
or a recognition of his spiritual nature and 
its needs. 

2. The majority of the colonists came to Majority of 

. . Colonists Not 

America to improve their fortunes, and 'nterested in 

^ ' Religion 

the purchase of slaves was simply a com- 
mercial transaction. Many colonists were 



58 The Upward Path 

not Christians themselves, and, as a matter 
of course, cared nothing for the salvation 
of others, either white or black. This class 
of men in that day, as in this, easily per- 
suaded themselves into thinking that all 
religion was either superstition or hypoc- 
risy, and that the Negroes were better off 
without it. The worst of them exercised 
their power in refusing religious oppor- 
tunities to their slaves. 
Ne^esskiSId 3. Ccrtalu uprisings of dissatisfied 
Precautions gi^ygg [j^ different parts of the country 

made it necessary, in the minds of some, 
to prevent all large gatherings among 
them with the possibilities which they of- 
fered of fomenting and planning disturb- 
ances; and, as religious gatherings were 
sometimes used for this purpose, they 
were also at times disallowed, and in 
some places laws were passed forbidding 
them as well as others. This was espe- 
cially true during the period immediately 
following the early abolition movement 
and the intolerance which accompanied it. 
mlKLSar'y 4. Thc low, vicious nature of the Afri- 
Effort Difficult ^^^^ niade then, as now, any missionary 

effort among them difficult and slow. 
They were imbued with the basest super- 



American Slavery 59 

stitions and cJung to their fetich with un- 
reasoning fear. Their spiritual faculties 
were so dormant that they often seemed 
incapable of spiritual perception of any 
kind. Their physical habits and immoral 
practices were so filthy and debasing that 
their moral degeneracy opposed bitterly 
the doctrines of purity and truth, and even 
when Christianity was accepted many ad- 
herents would not regard its ethics. 

5. On the plantations there were many Language a 

Barrier 

who did not know enough iLinglish to un- 
derstand the words of the preacher, and 
they were so stupid that they could never 
learn it, and their own language possessed 
no spiritual terms that would properly 
convey to them the gospel of love and pu- 
rity. Over this class of native Africans 
and their children the witch-doctor had as 
much fearful power as in the wilds of 
Africa. 

6. The turbulent state of mind preceding Turbulent 
and during the Eevolutionary War, and unfavorable 
the unsettled conditions which followed it 

and which led to the Western movement, 
were unfavorable to all religious life. 

7. The infidel propaganda of Voltaire, 'nfi^ei 

i^ i- ^ ' Propaganda an 

Rousseau, and Paine that swept through imp«»'ment 



60 The Upward Path 

Christendom like a poison virus turned 
away many hearts from Christ and right- 
eousness. Its influence was felt from New 
England to the Carolinas, in the eastern 
cities and the wildernesses of the West. 
Slave-owners infected by it bitterly re- 
sented or ridiculed the efforts of preachers 
or even of their own Christian wives to 
teach the Negroes belief in God. The un- 
shaken faith and Christian courage of 
American women during that time of apos- 
tasy was the leaven that saved this country 
for Christ. Later, great revivals swept 
over the country and the quickening of the 
Holy Spirit was felt by both white and 
black — master and slave often being con- 
verted at the same '' mourner's bench." 
One of the important results of these re- 
vivals was the increased sense of responsi- 
bility felt by masters for the religious in- 
struction of their Negroes. 
^HiJpioE ^^ ^^^ through all these difficulties and 
adverse influences the Church of God and 
His faithful children never ceased their ef- 
forts to save the poor African slaves. And 
God was fulfilling His promise that His 
Word should not return unto Him void. 
The seed of the Word was falling upon 



American Slavery 61 

hearts prepared by the Spirit to receive it, 
and was bearing fruit to the glory of God 
in the conversion and daily life of more 
and yet more of the slaves. The history 
of this missionary movement is as inter- 
esting as any that has been written of 
Africa, and the results are more wonder- 
ful.i 
At the beginning of the Civil War church 

/tnnfw ii , ,1 -K-r Membership In 

(IodU), the census reports the Negro pop- south 
ulation of the South as 4,097,111. In the 
Baptist and Methodist Churches alone 
607,786 Negroes were enrolled as baptized 
members, and instructed adherents were 
estimated at 1,823,328. Add to this the 
membership and adherents of the Presby- 
terian, Protestant Episcopal, Moravian, 
and Negro BajDtist Churches, of which no 
records can be obtained, and there must 
have been over 2,000,000 Negroes in the 
Southern States who were either profess- 
ing Christians or under direct Protestant 
Christian influence and instruction — nearly 
one-half of their whole number. Of the 

1 The details of this great work of the saving of a people will 
be told elsewhere In this volume, as the story of the evolution ot 
the race proceeds and the dark meaning of its different stages un- 
folds and grows clearer. Let it sutBce here to give the result of 
the unquenchable love, unfailing patience, generous giving, and 
unflagging zeal of years of this heroic effort. 



62 The Upward Path 

other half there were hundreds, possibly 
thousands, of Eoman Catholics, and there 
must also have been large numbers to 
whom the gospel had been preached and 
who refused to receive it. 
Membership^n i^ the North, in 1860, there was a Negro 
population of 344,719, of whom we can 
claim that an equal proportion were Chris- 
tians and under Christian instruction. 
Does the history of missions present any 
parallel to this? 

SUGGESTED QUESTIONS ON CHAPTEE II 

Aim: To Understand Thoroughly the Conditions 
THAT Obtained Among the Slaves and the Prog- 

EESS THEY MADE 

1. When were the first slaves landed in America? 
2.* What was the real motive for importing Ne- 
groes to America? 

3. Name the countries most interested in this 
traflSe. 

4. Describe some of the horrors of the slave-trade. 
5.* Imagine and describe the condition of the mind 

of an African when he first landed on American 
soil. 

6. What States made the first movement toward 
abolition? 

7. When and in what country was the slave-trade 
first abolished? 

8. What were the natural causes that segregated 
the slaves in the South? 



American Slavery 63 

9.* Why was it necessary to place the Negroes un 
der restraint when they first landed in America? 

10. What proportion of the Negroes were enslaved 
and what proportion of the Southern whites 
owned slaves? 

11. What were the principal occupations of tho 
slaves? 

12. Why was it not advantageous to an owner to 
neglect the care of his slaves? 

13.* Why is it not just to assume that all owners 
or overseers treated the Negroes cruelly? 

14. What was the responsibility of an owner to his 
slaves ? 

15. Name some of the regulations as to labor, moral 
and physical conditions, under which slaves 
were held. 

16. Why were these necessary? 

17. What were the duties of some of the most im- 
portant servants? 

18. What benefits did the Negroes acquire in slav- 
ery? 

19.* Name some of the difficulties that surrounded 
the ci\dlization of the Negroes. 

20. Name some of the difficulties in the way of 
evangelizing the slaves among the white people. 

21. What were the obstacles among the slaves that 
made their evangelization difficult? 

22.* How do you account for the success of mission- 
ary work among the slaves? 



64 The Upward Path 

Eeferences for Further Study. — Chapter II 

American Slavery} 

Merriam: The Negro and the Nation, XII. 
Page, In Ole Virginia, 1-77. 
Page: The Negro: The Southerner's Problem, 
I. 

Price : The Negro, IV, VI, VII. 
Pyrnelle: Diddie, Dumps and Tot, I-XVII. 
Shannon: Eacial Integrity, III. 
Sinclair: The Aftermath of Slavery, I. 
Washington: Up From Slavery, I, II. 
Washington: Frederick Douglass, I, II, III. 
Whipple: Negro Neighbors, I. 
Williams : History of the Negro Eace, XXX, 
XXXI. 

1 In these references the view-point of Negroes, Southerners and 
Northerners, is given. Students may select whichever they prefer. 
However, as a rule, it will be wise to have all sides presented. 



FIRST YEARS OF FREEDOM 



As to actual behavior of the Negroes, under this suil- 
den and tremendous change of condition, certain facts 
were noted; not a single act of vengeance was charged 
against them; a great part, probably the large majority, 
remained or soon went back to work for their old em- 
ployers; but a considerable part began an aimless roam- 
ing to enjoy their new liberty, or huddle around the 
stations where the agents of the Freedmen's Bureau 
doled out some relief. 

— George S. Merriam 

The white people of the South were harassed by press- 
ing necessities, and most of them in a troubled and 
greatly excited state of mind. The emancipation of the 
slaves had destroyed the traditional labor system upon 
which they had depended. 

— Carl Schurs 

The Southern people, blacks and whites, were in a 
position of almost unexampled difficulty. To the rav- 
ages of war and invasion, of impoverishment and be- 
reavement — and, as it fell out, to two successive sea- 
sons of disastrous weather for crops, — was added at the 
outset a complete disarrangement of the principal sup- 
ply of labor. The mental overturning was as great as 
the material. To the Negroes " freedom " brought a 
vague promise of life without toil or trouble. The hard 
facts soon undeceived them. 

' — George S. Merriam 



m 

FIRST YEARS OF FREEDOM 

ONCE again the American Negro, with- Another step 
out his volition or personal effort, 
was subjected to a radical change in his 
condition and forced to take another step 
in the onward movement of his racial life. 
It was a change as bewildering and at- 
tended with as much suffering as that 
which brought him out from the African 
jungle into American slavery. This time 
he was to pass over a sea, not of water but 
of blood, into a land of strange responsi- 
bilities. Like a babe cradled on a battle- 
field, amid the sounds of a strife in which 
he had no part, the Negro first breathed 
the priceless air of liberty and seized un- 
thinkingly upon its unearned privileges, 
nor counted its cost. As his feet entered 
the path leading onward and upward to a 
still further process in his evolution, he 
found that that which his past life gave him 
was to prove his best preparation for the 
demands of his present, and the hard les- 



68 The Upward Path 

sons still to be learned were to be the 
' ' growing pains " of a life that meant the 
real achievement that is wrought out from 
within. The inner processes of racial evo- 
lution cannot be ignored, though they may 
be hindered or accelerated from without. 
^ Freedom ^^^ Ncgro laborcr in the South sang or 
sighed at his work, and partook of human 
joy and sorrow all unconscious of the 
forces that were working out his destiny. 
While the invention of the cotton-gin, car- 
peting the South with that great staple for 
which the commerce of the world waited, 
increased the value of his labor and fas- 
tened his bonds more surely, there was a 
growing demand among the nations for 
universal -freedom. Strange to say, from 
the Mother Country, which had forced 
slavery upon her Southern colonies, came 
the first cry for its abolishment, and the 
cry was caught up in those Northern States 
that, having rid themselves of the oppor- 
tunity to bestow freedom on the Negro, now 
demanded that others be more generous in 
loosing his bonds. The underlying forces 
worked mightily, and a great upheaval ap- 
proached. 
While the antislavery sentiment was 



First Years of Freedom 69 



Northern 
Seatimeot 



growing in the North, the proslavery senti- 
ment was growing in the South. The aboli- 
tionist became fiercely uncompromising, 
and in his burning enthusiasm for the free- 
dom of the Negro represented the white 
slave-owner as little better than an agent 
of the devil, and his professions of Chris- 
tianity as almost blasphemous hypocrisy. 
An intelligent Christian gentleman stated 
recently that in home, school, and church 
he was taught that it was impossible to be 
both a Christian and a slave-owner, and 
that he hated the whole South until he 
grew old enough to think and see for him- 
self. 

The activities of the abolitionists in lenliment 
arousing prejudice against the South in 
the nation and in the world were bitterly 
resented, and when they extended to ef- 
forts to incite the slaves to insurrection, the 
Southern man blazed with fury and heaped 

I anathemas upon all Yankees. An aboli- 
tionist meant to him a '^ canting fanatic " 

^ who would steal, burn, and even murder 
white people to carry out his mistaken 
ideas of good for the black man. 

jj That which began in recriminations be- a^ouS'**" 
came open curses and violent demonstra- 



70 The Upward Path 

tions of hatred. Philanthropy entered upon 
the political arena, and sectional politicians 
fought out the battle in the national capi- 
tol. Brilliant intellect, intrepid courage, 
intense conviction, bitter prejudice, all 
combined to make the conflict amazing. 
The giants of the nation on both sides of 
the line were engaged in it. On one side 
the slogan was '' State Eights," on the 
other '' Federal Power." Great constitu- 
tional questions were thus involved and 
their establishment became the supreme 
effort of the statesmen of the country, as 
each conceived them. But underneath it 
all was the question and fate of the institu- 
tion of slavery'. 
A ^fj^^^^ It would be useless to recount here the 
different steps of this political contest. It 
would be a long story to tell " How the 
battle was lost and won." Nor is it need- 
ful to rewrite the " oft- told tale " of the 
Civil War which out of political antago- 
nism burst like a fearful storm over our 
devoted land. Hand to hand, foot to foot, 
brother against brother, we fought our 
fight to a finish. The world has never 
known such a war. Brave hearts on each 
side recognized the true soldier on the 



First Years of Freedom ' 71 

other, and when the end came, that final 
scene on the field of Appomattox is tyjDical 
of the feelings of those who on both sides 
fought for what they deemed the right. 
The intrepid, great-souled Lee, accepting 
defeat, rendered up his sword with calm 
dignity to the conqueror. With true mag- 
nanimity, Grant, the invincible warrior, re- 
turned that sword with courteous words of 
refusal to claim such evidence of his tri- 
umph. God help us! What untold suffer- 
ing and shame would have been spared our 
country if that spirit had prevailed in the 
councils of the nation in the years that fol- 
lowed ! 
It is an acknowledged fact that Negro Jhe Negro the 

~ '-' Greatest Sufferer 

slavery was made the cause of the war, yet 
whatever of wrong was wrought, or agony 
suffered, the Negro was an innocent cause, 
and in the immediate results the greater 
sufferer. After forty years one can look 
back and see how for his sake ignorance, 
hate, prejudice, and greed united in caus- 
ing that great national tragedy, and later 
on the still more bitter suffering to the 
South of the Reconstruction Period. But, 
alas! none can ever calculate the loss en- 
tailed upon him by the way his freedom 



72 The Upward Path 

came to him. Nor has he yet been relieved 
of the destructive, degenerating influence 
brought to bear upon him when, like a 
child beginning to walk, he looked for some 
one to lead him and was recklessly pushed 
into a ditch and left to extricate himself. 
When he needed bread he was given a 
stone which, when he had thrown it, re- 
bounded against himself. "When he needed 
a light to keep his feet from straying, he 
was taught to look at the sun until his eyes 
were dazzled and he lost his way. 
'^'^N^^o ^^ i® hardly in place to introduce here a 
broad discussion of the matter, yet it would 
not be just to the Negro to remain silent in 
regard to some of the facts of this period 
of his history that redound to his praise, 
and others that plunged him into so many 
difficulties, political, industrial, and social, | ' 
and retarded all missionary effort in Ms 
behalf. 

Writers and speakers, both white and 
black, have recorded these things in worthy 
tributes to both races, and it seems well to 
repeat some of them here as the best pres- 
entation of the subject to present-day 
readers. 

Thomas Nelson Page says :' * It is to the 



First Years of Freedom 



73 



eternal credit of the whites and of the Ne- Kge"^,^eSony 
groes that during the four years of war, 
when the white men of the South were ab- 
sent in the field, they could entrust their 
homes, their wives, their children, all they 
possessed, to the care and guardianship of 
their slaves with absolute confidence in 
their fidelity. An this trust was never 
violated. ... Of the thousands who went 
as servants with their masters to the war 
I never heard of one who deserted to the 
North, and many had abundant opportu- 
nity. "^ 

" They raised the crops that fed the 
Confederate army, and suffered without 
complaint the privations which came alike 
to white and black. ' ' - 

This is a tribute to both races, inasmuch Both Ra«s. 
as it shows that mutual love and kindness 
helped to keep the bondsman true to his 
master. 

Booker T. Washington says on this sub- 
ject: '^ The self-control which the Negro 
exhibited during the war marks, it seems 
to me, one of the most important chapters 
in the history of the race. Notwithstand- 
ing he knew his master was away from 



Booker T. 

Washington's 

Testimony 



1 Page, The Negro: The Southerner's Problem, ISS. 
a Ibid., 22. 



74 The Upward Path 

home fighting a battle which, if successful, 
would result in his continued enslavement, 
yet he worked faithfully for the support of 
the master's family. If the Negro had 
yielded to the temptation and suggestion 
to use the torch or dagger in an attempt to 
destroy his master's property or family, 
the result would have been that the war 
would have been quickly ended; for the 
master would have returned from the bat- 
tle-field to protect and defend his property 
and family. But the Negro to the last was 
faithful to the trust that had been thrust 
upon him, and during the four years of war 
there is not a single instance recorded 
where he attempted in any way to outrage 
the family or to injure his master's prop- 
erty. ' ' ^ 
Weakness of rpjjg game writcr says of the Eeconstruc- 

Reconstruction •> 

P^""** tion Period: ''At the close of the war both 
the white man and the Negro found them- 
selves in the midst of poverty. The ex- 
master returned from the war to find his 
slave property gone, his farms and other 
industries in a state of collapse, and the 
whole industrial or economic system upon 
which he had depended for years entirely 

1 Wasliington, The Future of the American Negro, 8, 9. 



First Years of Freedom 75 

disorganized. . . . The weak point, to 
my mind, in the reconstruction era, was 
that no strong force was brought to bear in 
the direction of preparing the Negro to be- 
come an intelligent, reliable citizen and 
voter. The main effort seems to have been 
in the direction of controlling his vote for 
the time being, regardless of future inter- 
ests. 

' ' I hardly believe that any race of people ^1%%^,^^ for 
with similar preparation and similar sur- ^Iriod**''"'^*'"" 
roundings would have acted more wisely 
or very differently from the way the Negro 
acted during this period of reconstruction. 
Without experience, without preparation, 
and in most cases without ordinary intelli- 
gence, he was encouraged to leave the field 
and shop and enter politics. That under 
such circumstances he should have made 
mistakes is very natural. I do not believe 
that the Negro was so much at fault for en- 
tering so largely into politics and for the 
mistakes that were made in too many cases, 
as were the unscrupulous white leaders 
who got the Negro's confidence and con- 
trolled his vote to further their own ends, 
regardless of the permanent welfare of the 
Negro. . . . 



76 The Upward Path 

Lack of i ' i^ ^as unfortunate that the Southern 

Sympathy 

'^"°'whi"e Men white man did not make more of an effort 
at this time to get the confidence and sym- 
pathy of the Negro, and thus keep him in 
close touch and sympathy in politics. It 
was also unfortunate that the Negro was 
so completely alienated from the Southern 
white man. I think it would have been bet- 
ter for all concerned if, immediately after 
the close of the war, an educational and 
property qualification for the exercise of 
the franchise had been prescribed that 
would have applied fairly and squarely to 
both races, and also if, in educating the 
Negro, greater stress had been put on train- 
ing him along the lines of industry for 
which his services were in the greatest de- 
mand in the South. ... I believe this 
period serves to point out many weak 
points in our effort to elevate the Negro, 
and that we are now taking advantage of 
the mistakes that were made. . . . What 
is needed is to apply these lessons bravely 
and honestly in laying the foundation upon 
which the Negro can stand in the future 
and make himself a useful, honorable, and 
desirable citizen."^ 

1 Washington, The Future of the American Negro, 10-15. 



First Years of Freedom 77 

Of the Eeconstruction Period Mr. Pag'e strong Bond 

» of Friendship at 

says : ' ' When the war closed the friend- '^'"^^ **' ^^^ 
ship between the races was never stronger; 
the relations were never more closely 
welded. Each recognized and appreciated 
the good in the other. " The majority of 
the slaves heard of their freedom first 
from their own masters. . . . The joy 
with which the slaves hailed emancipation 
did not relax the bonds of affection be- 
tween them and their former masters and 
owners. There was, of course, much dis- 
organization and no little misunderstand- 
ing. The whites, defeated and broken, 

at unquelled and undismayed, were un- 
speakably sore; the Negroes, suddenly 
freed and facing an unknown condition, 
were naturally in a state of excitement. 
But the transition was accomplished with- 
out an outbreak or an outrage ... or 
even few incidents of ill temper on either 
side. This was reserved for a later time 
when a new poison had been instilled into 
the Negro's mind and had begun to 
work. . . . 

" For years after the war many of the SefeTted neids 
older Negroes, men and women, remained 
the faithful guardians of the white women 



78 The Upward Path 

and children of their dead masters' fam- 
ilies. . . . The first pressing necessity in 
the South was to secure the means of liv- 
ing, for in sections where the armies had 
been the country was swept clean and in 
all sections the entire labor system was dis- 
organized. ... In most instances the old 
masters informed their servants that their 
homes were open to them, and if they were 
willing to remain and work, they would do 
all in their power to help them. But to re- 
main, in the first radiant holiday of free- 
dom, was, perhaps, more than could be ex- 
pected of human nature, and most of the 
blacks went off for a while, though later a 
large number of them returned. In a little 
while the country was filled with an army 
of occui3ation. The Negro, moved by curi- 
osity, the novelty, and mainly by the love 
of the rations which the government imme- 
diately began to distribute, not unnaturally 
flocked to the posts of the local garrison, 
leaving the fields unworked and the crops 
to go to destruction. ' ' ^ 
Anticipationt'of Thcsc uQworkcd lauds were declared 
Negroes << abaudoucd lands," and in some places 
they were given by government officials to 

1 Page, The Negro: The Southerner's Problem, 28-30, 18S, 192. 



First Years of Freedom 79 

the Negroes who retained possession of 
them. The idea became widespread that 
the government intended to divide the land 
of the whites among the Negroes and the 
belief became current that every Negro was 
to receive ' ' forty acres and a mule. ' ' 

The antagonism felt by the white people mh*"!"" 
toward each other, North and South, mani- 
fested itself in their different opinions in 
regard to existing conditions in the South 
and how they should be met. The North 
believed the Negro was, or might be made, 
the actual equal of the white. The South 
held that he was not; and that, suddenly re- 
leased from slavery, he must, to prevent 
his becoming a menace and a burden, be 
controlled and compelled to work. In their 
warring efforts almost every possible mis- 
take was made by North and South, white 
and black. 

The Freedmen's Bureau came into the Freedmen-s 

. Bureau 

South With almost unlimited authority, 
backed by the United States army and 
treasury. " It made laws, executed them, 
and interpreted them; it laid and collected 
taxes; defined and punished crime; main- 
tained and used military force; and dic- 
tated such measures as it thought neces- 



80 The Upward Path 

sary and proper for the accomplishment of 
its varied ends."^ Its chief purpose, in 
fact only purpose, was to care for the f reed- 
man and advance his interests, and to that 
end all its legislative, judicial, and execu- 
tive powers were exercised, usually with- 
out regard to the interests of the white 
population. Through its influence the 
Union League was formed among the Ne- 
groes—an organization whose inflammatory 
teaching consolidated the Negro race 
against the white and whose bitter fruit 
still survives. 
Carpetbagger and Tlicu camo the postbellum politicians— 

Scalawag ^ ^ 

*' carpetbagger " and " scalawag "^— who 
made the Negroes the instruments by which 
they enriched themselves. Their oppor- 
tunity was the Fifteenth Amendment— now 
generally acknowledged North and South 
a national blunder— which enfranchised a 
great mass of ignorant blacks and disfran- 
chised the most intelligent and conservative 
class of whites; their power was the Fed- 
eral army. 
Disastrous ^^^® eight ycars following, known as the 
^^^i"* Eeconstruction Period, possibly cost the 

1 " The Negro Common School." Atlantic Monthly, March, 1901. 

2 The "carpetbagger" came from, the North, the " scalawag " 
was a mean Southern white man. 




Copyright, (jilbo Jt Co. 



Abraham Lincoln 



First Years of Freedom 81 

South more than the four years of war 
cost her.i When these eight years of Ne- 
gro domination under carpetbag leaders 
had passed, the public indebtedness of the 
Southern States had increased about four- 
fold. "While the property values in all the 
States had shrunk, in those which were un- 
der Negro rule they had fallen to less 
than half what they had been when the 
South entered upon that period. The South 
does not hold that the Negro race was pri- 
marily responsible for this travesty of gov- 
ernment. Few reasonable men now charge 
the Negroes at large with more than ig- 
norance and an invincible faculty for being 
" worked on." But the consequences were 
not the less disastrous. 

" The injury to the whites was not the SJstlSt* 
only injury caused by the reconstruction 
system. To the Negro, the object of its 
bounty, it was no less a calamity. He was 
taught that the white man (Southern) was 
his enemy, when he should have been taught 
to cultivate his friendship. He was told he 
was the equal of the white man, when he 
was not; that he was the ward of the nation, 
when he should have been trained to self- 

1 Page. The Negro: The Southerner's Problem, 45. 



Lincoln's 
Plan 



82 The Upward Path 

reliance; that the government would sus- 
tain him, when he could not be sustained. 
In legislation he was taught thieving; in 
politics to slavishly follow his leaders; in 
private life he was taught insolence. . . . 
To these teachings may be traced most of 
the misfortunes of the Negro race, and in- 
deed of the whole South since the war. ' ' ^ 
It is but just to say that throughout the 
North there was a large element who fa- 
vored Lincoln's plan of reconstruction,- 
which, if his foul assassination had not pre- 
vented, he would have carried out, and 
thereby added a still greater luster to his 
name in securing a complete restoration of 
the Union without destroying a part of it. 
^*"soidiers Among those who came South as officers 
in the army there were some who — true 
soldiers — came in obedience to orders, but 
with no desire to injure the South in obey- 
ing those orders. They honestly and ear- 
nestly sought to do their duty by all, white 
and black. The difficulties and perplexities 
surrounding them were great, not the least 

1 Page, The Negro: The Southerner's Problem, 47. 48. 

2 Lincoln's plan would have restored the seceded States to their 
former status in the Union under the Constitution. In *:he plan 
adopted by congress, those States were regarded as a conquered 
province, and military occupation was deemed necessary to quell 
any possible attempt at revolution. 



First Years of Freedom 83 

being that their presence was resented by 
the whites, their sympathy was imposed 
upon by the blacks, and any attempt to deal 
justly between them excited suspicion of 
their loyalty. These sometimes received 
undeserved retaliation from the whites for 
the misdeeds of others which they had not 
endorsed. 

It must also be said that while the wisest shuttii;ock 
and best men of the South counseled con- 
servative action, there were many whose 
losses and wrongs stung them to reckless 
resistance. Attempts at coercive legisla- 
tion and private efforts to retrieve the situ- 
ation proved alike their impotence and 
their bitterness. Mistakes and errors seemed 
the order of the day on both sides, and 
the Negro was the shuttlecock between 
their battledores— now tossed high in the 
air, now struck down to the ground. He 
was too ignorant to rule, yet he deserved 
a citizen's rights. The wonder is that he 
should have come out of this political strife 
as well as he did. 

The process used in making the recently g^f^^ ^^^ pu„ 
emancipated freedman into a citizen re- ^'"^^"^'"p 
versed all natural order and logical se- 
quence. It was like demanding foliage, 



84 The Upward Path 

flower, and fruit of a newly planted root, 
in expecting results before causes were set 
in motion to produce them. Looking back 
over the forty years that have passed, we 
might in the light of the present laugh over 
those " first days " as a farce, if it were 
not that its tragedy makes us weep. 
Ignorance in Qur civilizatiou fiuds uot ouly its unit in 

Power ^ '' 

the home, but its character is based upon 
it. Our form of government to be success- 
ful requires, though it does not always find, 
intelligence in the people from whom its 
power emanates, statesmanship in its legis- 
lators, integrity in its executive officers, and 
a pure judiciary. Ere the Negro could 
make a home and learn to fulfil the duties 
of a free husband and father, before he had 
time to gain the rudiments of an education, 
while he was yet ignorant of the Constitu- 
tion (except the Thirteenth Amendment) 
and the existing laws of the nation and the 
state, he had forced upon him, not only the 
right to vote, but was himself placed in 
high official position in municipal and state 
governments, where he must make laws 
and administer them, where he must pre- 
side over the courts and render judicial 
decisions. And this power was to be exer- 



First Years of Freedom 85 

cised not over himself alone, but over a 
race accustomed to self-government and to 
governing their new rulers. 

For eight years a number of Southern J^l^o'coStroi 
states were partly, and three of them were 
wholly, given up to Negro control. The 
Negro was invested with absolute power 
and turned loose, with the strength of the 
Federal army back of him, always to be 
exercised in his favor and against the pro- 
testing white man. '' What was the result? 
Such a riot of folly and extravagance, such 
a travesty of justice, such a mummery of 
government as was never before wit- 
nessed." Governor Chamberlain, of South 
Carolina, though representing the policy 
and authority of the North, declared: ' ' The 
civilization of the Puritan and Cavalier, of 
the Eound Head and the Huguenot, is in 
peril. ' ' 

A condition such as is described could p?oduce*d** 
have been made possible only (1) by his 
numbers and the disfranchisement of al- 
most the entire Southern white voters; (2) 
the bitter political partizanship that sought 
to punish the South and use the Negro as a 
whip, and allowed unprincipled men to use 
that whip to gorge themselves with the re- 



86 The Upward Path 

suits of his fraud and thievery; and (3) tbe 
Army of Occupation.^ 

Franchise a That the Negro, so handicapped by his 
own ignorance and these demoralizing in- 
fluences, would prove an undesirable, even 
dangerous ruling element, was a foregone 
conclusion, and, as time has passed, has 
served to emphasize the mistake of those 
who added the Fifteenth Amendment to 
the Constitution so soon after emancipa- 
tion. The general opinion of dispassionate 
men, even many of those who had a part in 
it, has come to regard it as untimely. The 
most intelligent leaders of the Negro race 
now coincide with this view. The fran- 
chise might well have waited for his own 
sake until the freedman had acquired the 
knowledge to use it creditably to himself. 

Negro Rule The carpctbag politicians disappeared 
with the Army of Occupation and the 
Freedmen's Bureau, and then Negro rule 
crumbled. But, alas! the Negro had to 
stay and bear the burden of the mistakes 
of all these, and to become the subjective 
and objective victim of the race hatred 
they had engendered. It did not take long 
for the white race to regain the supremacy 

1 A term applied to the Federal forces stationed in the South 
at that time. 



First Years of Freedom 



87 



to which they claimed the right and to re- 
organize the whole system of state gov- 
ernment. 

That drastic, illegal measures were used L"®^?' Measures 

, Employed 

in many instances to secure this is an un- 
disputed fact. For this, explanation was 
given in the oft-repeated terse proverbs, 
** Necessity knows no law," and " Self- 
preservation is the first law of life." The 
general feeling was expressed in the state- 
ment, '^ This is war, not politics," and af- 
ter-history shows that they recognized the 
true situation. This is borne out by the re- 
markably frank articles by Carl Schurz, 
recently published in McClure's Magazine 
under the captions of *' First Days of Re- 
construction," and '' The Repudiation of 
Johnson's Policy." 

Later, many of the states held conven- K^anchised 
tions that adopted new Constitutions which 
by their educational qualifications virtu- 
ally disfranchised the gTeat mass of Negro 
voters who were illiterate. If this has 
proved an incentive to education among 
the blacks it has given them an advantage 
over the illiterate white of the exempt class 
who are left without such incentive. 

Dr. G. Stanley Hall in his pamphlet, 



88 The Upward Path 

Dr. a. Stanley ' ' ^he Negro in Africa and America, ' ' says : 
'' After the war the majority at the North 
continued the policy of giving the Negro 
the ballot, which Lincoln disapproved and 
which had been persistently refused him in 
many Northern states. It was given, if 
not as a penalizing measure to those lately 
in rebellion, at least as a weapon to safe- 
guard the freedom of these new wards of 
the nation. Then followed the eight years 
beginning with 1867, so tragic for the 
South, involving enormous waste and con- 
fusion, an indebtedness equaling the entire 
cost of the war plus the value of the slaves 
as property, negroizing more or less one 
third of the States of the Union until they 
seemed to be on the downward path toward 
conditions like those of Hayti, San Do- 
mingo, or Porto Rico. 
Negroes^Arrayed " Whatcvcr allcgiance aud friendship 
Masters j^]^q Negrocs had felt for their old masters 
was transferred to their new Northern al- 
lies. For myself, as abolitionist both by 
conviction and descent, I wish to confess 
my error of opinion in those days; and I be- 
lieve that all candid minds who, in Kelly 
Miller's trenchant phrase, study rather 
than discuss the problem, and are not too 



First Years of Freedom 89 

old to learn, are ready to confess mistakes. 
Even the Freedmen's Bureau helped to 
make the colored man at the South feel de- 
pendent upon the North rather than upon 
his own efforts. Much as the New South 
has done to outgrow these evils, perhaps 
the worst effect of all these years is now 
seen in the fact that Southern Negroes are 
a solidified party arrayed against their old 
masters on all questions, and cannot divide 
freely among themselves even on local and 
economic problems, or follow their old in- 
terests, but the party and color line still 
coincide. ' ' 

All that has been said has related to the Sheeted whoie 
political rather than the industrial, social, ^ife of Negro 
and religious aspects of the freedman's 
condition. Yet slow indeed would we be 
in noting cause and effect in the moral 
world, if we failed to see how the facts 
stated affected the whole life of the Negro 
in the nation. 

Let be said against slavery what may be [r"nse™ay"* 
said, it at least taught industrial habits and "'^"^ss 
obedience to law, and prohibited many of 
the grosser vices. "With its restraints taken 
nway, every form of vice became rampant. 
Drunkenness, gambling, stealing, lying, and 



90 The Upward Path 

sensuality found opportunity and encour- 
agement never known before. To the ma- 
jority freedom meant license and idleness. 
Work of any kind was regarded as an ex- 
pression of slavery, 
^"^^church The Negroes had either shared the 
Privileges Qii^j^^]! privileges of the white people, or 
had them provided by the whites. They 
now suffered the same deprivation of those 
privileges that the white people did when 
the reckless hand of war destroyed the 
churches, or turned them into barracks or 
hospitals; or when the pastor or mission- 
ary became the chaplain or soldier. In 
some places where the federal forces had 
not entered, the plantation missions were 
kept up during the war, and the Negro 
preacher continued his exhortations and 
Christian mistresses their ministrations. 
But gradually the whole land lay van- 
quished and desolate, and white and black 
suffered alike for a while in the loss of the 
ordinary religious ministry. The poverty 
of the white people made it scarcely possi- 
ble now to support churches for themselves, 
and all missionary work was necessarily 
suspended, and this was at the very time 
when the Negro's temptation was greatest 



First Years of Freedom 



91 



to break away from all religious restraints 
and indulge in sinful excesses. 

The older Christians among the Negroes swe"fAwf^™** 
saw and deplored the fact that, while they ^^ ^'" 
held fast to their Christian profession, the 
younger and less established in the ways of 
righteousness were being swept away in 
the current of sin. As one old mother ex- 
pressed it: " My chilluns is a-breakin' my 
heart while dey's doin' dey best to kill dey 
own souls. Dey won't listen to me, nor to 
Brer' Sam'ul, and when I ax ole Miss' ter 
talk ter imi lak what she uster, dey won't 
listen ter her nuther, and ole Marster he 
can't do nothing nuther. Me an ole Miss' 
we des prays for um, kaze dat 's all we kin 
do." 

To these faithful ones, white and black, 
who sought in every way to stay the mad 
rush of the weaker element into destruc- 
tion, belongs the praise of preserving that 
which was best to the race through this 
time of trial and temptation. '' To them 
shall be given a crown of life." In line 
with the work formerly done among their 
own slaves, Sunday-schools were opened in 
many places by devout men and women, 
evangelistic services were held when pos- 



Christian Efforts 
Thwarted 



92 The Upward Path 

sible, and efforts were made to induce the 
Negroes to attend. But as the days went 
by and distrust and insolence grew among 
the younger Negroes, these efforts were 
unavailing. Strange to say, sometimes 
they were objected to by some Southern 
white people, who also had come in turn 
to feel bitter resentment and distrust to- 
ward the Negroes. 
^"corSvl I* i^ hard for any one who did not see 
and grieve over it to understand the condi- 
tion of the poor black people during the 
first period following the war. Those who 
did, though suffering with and from them, 
can scarcely restrain their tears to-day 
when the memory of it rises before them. 
They have by virtue of these memories a 
better understanding of 3ome of the things 
of to-day than have those, North and 
South, who did not see this part of the Ne- 
gro 's history, and know what was in his 
past. 
Unprepared for Cared for iu cvcry respect as slaves, 

Responsibility . . 

guided in their work, provided with all the 
necessaries of life, nursed in sickness, pro- 
tected from labor and hardships in child- 
hood and age, how could the Negroes, in a 
moment, as it were, know as freedmen how 



First Years of Freedom 93 

to do all tliese things for themselves? The 
land was filled with wandering vagrants, 
who either would not work, or who fol- 
lowed those who refused to do so. Family 
ties were sundered by them, either from in- 
difference or necessity, far widely and 
more frequently than during the days of 
slavery. 

They had no home, and often their only "nTsorro^w'*""^ 
shelter was a crude shed, while frequently 
they lay in the open field, weary pilgrims 
seeking they knew not what. Clothing 
grew so ragged as scarcely to cover the 
nakedness of their emaciated bodies; dis- 
ease unattended to, with no money for 
physician or medicine, carried off thou- 
sands, especially children and delicate 
women reared as house servants. Deluded 
with impossible promises, they hoped for 
wealth as a part of freedom. Their disap- 
pointment was practically expressed by one 
who said: " I thought when I got free I'd 
hev a big white house an' do lak Missus 
did. I'd hev a fine silk dress a-trailin' on 
de carpet, all trimmed up wid lace, an' er 
mahogamy table, a-shinin' wid silver. But 
freedom ain't meant nufifin ter me yit but 
sickness an 'hunger an'sorrer, an'instid of 



94 The Upward Path 

workin' my main bizness has been a-burrin 
of my dead." 
Necessity Drove The outcome of their baseless hopes at 
the time was temporary pauperism for the 
mass, but there were many who did not 
'' lose their heads," but went steadily on 
working for wages, or ''on shares," and 
by their industry, honesty, and thrift se- 
cured a competency and retained the re- 
spect of the white people. Their number 
constantly increased as the first wild ex- 
citement wore off and necessity drove back 
to work some who had been vagrants. 
^'shon,esty^in jt did uot help either of these classes to 
see the worst men of their race becoming 
the great men set up in the high places and 
clothed with political and judicial power, 
* * spreading like a green bay tree. ' ' It was 
an unsafe object-lesson that taught many 
that '' dishonesty is its own reward;" 
while of those poor tools of the '' carpet- 
bag " politician it might well have been 
said, ' ' Whom the gods would destroy they 
first make mad." 
^"of w°£^ The war-desolated South is thus de- 
scribed by Carl Schurz: ^' My travels in the 
South in the summer and fall of 1865 took 
me over the track of Sherman's march. 



First Years of Freedom 95 

.... It looked for many miles a broad, 
black streak of ruin and desolation— fences 
gone, lonesome smokestacks surrounded by 
dark heaps of ashes and cinders, marking 
the spot where human habitations had 
stood, the fields along the road wildly over- 
grown by weeds, with here and there a 
sickly looking patch of cotton or com, cul- 
tivated by Negro squatters. Even those 
regions which had been touched but little 
or not at all by military operations were 
laboring under dire distress. . . . Con- 
federate money had become worthless. 
Only a few individuals of more or less 
wealth had been fortunate enough to save, 
and keep throughout the war, small hoards 
of gold and silver. . . . The people may 
be said to have been without a ' circulating 
medium ' to serve in the ordinary transac- 
tions of business. . . . United States 
money could not be had for anything; it 
could only be obtained by selling something 
for it in the shape of goods or of labor. 
. . . They had of course very little to 
sell . . . and needed all their laboring 
capacity to provide for the wants of the 
next day. . . . 

The whole agricultural labor system 



n 



96 The Upward Path 

'^^?stand1tfii ^^^ turned upside down. Many of the Ne- 
groes, especially in the neighborhood of 
towns or of Federal encampments, very 
naturally yielded to the temptation of test- 
ing and enjoying their freedom by walking 
away from the plantations to frolic. . . . 
In various parts of the South the highways 
and byways were alive with ' foot-loose ' 
colored people. . . . They stayed away 
from the plantations just when their labor 
was most needed to secure the crops of the 
season, and those crops were more than 
ordinarily needed to save the population 
from continued want and misery. Violent 
efforts were made by white men to drive 
the straggling Negroes back to the planta- 
tions by force, and reports of bloody out- 
rages inflicted upon colored people came 
from many quarters. . . . The total over- 
turning of the whole labor system of a 
country accomplished suddenly without 
preparation or general transition, is a tre- 
mendous revolution, a terrible wrench, well 
apt to confuse men's minds. ... It was 
indeed an appalling situation, looking in 
many respects almost hopeless." ^ 
Southern People From this dcscriptiou it is a patent fact 

Financially -^ ^ 

Embarrassed •^ Schurz, " First Days of Reconstruction," McClure's Magazine, 

May, 1908. 



First Years of Freedom 97 

that the Southern people were powerless to 
aid in a financial way the poverty-stricken 
black population. Other circumstances as 
completely hindered them from aiding 
them in other ways. 

Into this rupture of the whole life of the ^dI&Z'S'"' 
land, involving the poverty and suffering 
of both races, came the first missionaries 
from the North to ' ' seek and to save ' ' the 
Negro. Theirs was a delicate task, and the 
j way to its accomplishment was one that an 
1 angel might well hesitate to tread. Some 
of them were wise as well as godly, and 
were a blessing to the Negroes in their 
Christlike work, and good results attended 
their labors. To these men and women all 
praise be given. " Many shall rise up in 
that day and call them blessed." The pity 
is that these wise, understanding ones were 
not the type of all, and the pity is still 
greater that the prejudice aroused by the 
unwise should have extended to them also, 
and that even yet many of the Southern 
people do not discriminate between the two 
classes. That justice may be done to both 
sides, some explanations are needed of this 
painful state of feeling and its unfortunate 
results. 



98 The Upward Path 

Existing Many of these teachers had been bitterly 

Conditions • i i i 

Misunderstood prejudiced against the exslave-owners by 
inflammatory literature and addresses of 
agitators and by the pitiful exaggerations 
of fugitive slaves, and verily they would 
have thought they did God's service if they 
might have punished the " oppressors " 
still more severely. They had no appreci- 
ative knowledge of the race traits or the 
characteristics of the Negro. They did not 
realize his primitive condition nor the long 
hard process of evangelizing and civilizing 
him, therefore they could not know how 
much had been accomplished for him by the 
Southern white people. They thought of 
the Negro as a Caucasian with a black skin 
who had been robbed of his possessed 
rights and brutally treated, and all his ig- 
norance and sin and misery were laid at 
the door of the white man. Taking no ac- 
count of the recent terrible cataclysm 
through which both races had passed, they 
failed to recognize existing conditions as in 
part, at least, resulting from it. 
Unwise Teaching Sad to say, they transmitted these ideas 
Animosity to their pupils, young and old, in the school 
and in the cabin, and the tares of distrust 
and resentment (not purposely, it is hoped) 
were sown along with the good seed of the 




General O. O. Howard 



First Years of Freedom 99 

Gospel and the primer. These tares bore 
dangerous fruit in the lives and manners 
of the impressionable Negroes, and the 
white people learned from them in various 
unpleasant ways (possibly much exagger- 
ated) what the missionary and teacher 
were saying, and they took bitter offense 
at such instruction. Especially was this re- 
sentment felt by the Southern women. 
Their land was battle-scarred, its desolate 
fields were filled with the unsodded graves 
of their dead, thev had endured untold 
hardships during the war, and now poverty 
and its unaccustomed labor pressed upon 
many of them. They were boiling with in- 
dignation under the double rule of the 
army and the Negro; they were fearfully 
conscious of the danger that lurked at 
every window and door; and now it was 
intolerable to have those with whom they 
had once lived in aifectionate intercourse, 
and upon whom as the only servant class 
they were still dependent, so turned against 
them that their presence in the home was 
offensive even when it could be secured.^ 
Was it a wonder under the circum- {f^g'JjJIj:^ 

^ In some instances they saw their ancestral homes and lucra- Ostracized 
tive plantations confiscated and used for Negro schools, or sold for 
their maintenance. (See report of Gen. Howard for 1869; also 
Atlanta University Publications, No. 6, pp. 22, 29.) This did not 
tend to good feeling. 



/ 



100 The Upward Path 

stances that the strangers were regarded! 
as *' political emissaries " (in a certain^ 
sense regarded as the anarchist is to-day), 
rather than as Christian missionaries 1 Was) 
it wonderful that the far-famed ' ' Southernjs 
hospitality " was not extended and them 
Northern teacher felt herself, as she was.j 
socially ostracized! 
Some Mistakes Thesc first missionaries saw the worst ofl 

Unavoidable ^ . ,1 

the worst state of the Negro, and the goodl 
was overshadowed by it so that there! 
seemed no good at all or else the good wasi 
deified. Their ignorance was felt by thef 
South to be almost unpardonable, for ill 
caused them to misunderstand and there- 
fore to misrepresent causes and conditions. 
The truth was exaggerated, when it was 
bad enough, by their writing of the worst 
and picturing that as typical of all, and by: 
the narration of distressing incidents asi 
the ordinary experience. These fearful re-l 
ports sent back to the North aroused there' 
a perfect fever of sympathy for the Negro, 
and in many cases a greater dislike for the 
Southern white man. Enthusiasm ran high, 
and all kinds of effort were put forth in 
behalf of the slaves. Zeal quickened into 
action, and without waiting for the prepa 



ill 



First Years of Freedom 101 

ration of knowledge, large numbers of en- 
thusiastic men and women were " thrust 
forth into the harvest." Money from the 
plethoric purses of the North was poured 
into the poverty-stricken South for the 
education of the Negro. Under such con- 
ditions it was impossible that mistakes 
should not have been made, serious mis- 
takes, as to the character of educative work 
to be done and the methods best suited to 
the Negro race and to its present needs and 
future development.^ 

Thanks be to God, there was also much Lelsonl^ 
good wrought, and by his overruling provi- *-^"°^ 
dence he has made even some of these mis- 
takes to work to his glory by providing val- 
uable lessons by which better service may 
be rendered in the future. Not the least 
of these lessons is the larger knowledge of 
the character of the race, its needs and pos- 
sibilities. This has brought disappoint- 
ment to some and encouragement to others. 
^' The Negro has been found to be neither 
an angel nor a devil, simply a man. ' ' The 
halo of the saint and martyr has been lifted 
from his head. Underneath his foibles and 

1 This is not ■written witli any desire to emphasize missionary 
mistalies. These have occurred in the beginning of all missionary 
enterprises and have served as stepping-stones to better things. 



1C2 The Upward Path 

weakness the kindly heart has been found. 
"When intellect has seemed to be lacking, 
deep spiritual perception has been discov- 
ered, and when the classics ' ' didn 't fit, ' ' the 
hand has been made skilful. How to " live 
the common life of daily task " nobly and 
honestly has been found to be a lesson often 
needed and gained when circumstances for- 
bade the halls of learning. 
'chJiS -^^ ^^^ hard that while his white friends 
Leadershipjhe ^q^q learning how to help him, the Negro 
should suffer from their mistakes, but slow- 
ly, ploddingly, by that help and the pres- 
sure of his own needs, he is emerging from 
the chaotic condition of the freedman into 
responsible citizenship. The greatest force 
in his uplift has and will come from the 
trained intelligence of the Christian men 
and women of his own race. Comparatively 
few, it may be, have shared in this task as 
yet, but that few are proving a leaven that 
will leaven the whole lump. ' ' 



n 




1* fw'^ifl 




Class in Domestic Science 




Electrical Engineering 



First Years of Freedom 103 



SUGGESTED QUESTIONS ON CHAPTEE ITT 

Aim : To Understand the Effect of the First Years 
OF Freedom Upon the Negroes 

1. What was the sentiment in the Northern and 
Southern States in regard to the abolition of 
slavery ? 

2. How were the early abolitionists treated in the 
North? Give examples. 

3. What relation did slavery have to the declara- 
tion of war? 

4. Why does the Negro deserve credit for his con- 
duct during the Civil War? 

5.* Was the Negro prepared for the duties of com- 
plete citizenship? 

6. Name some of the false anticipations that de- 
luded the Negroes. 

7. Name some of the causes of the changed finan- 
cial and industrial conditions in the South after 
the Civil War. 

8. Describe fully the work of the Freedmen's 
Bureau. 

9. What is the difference between a " carpet- 
bagger " and a " scalawag "? 

10.* Name some of the mistakes that were made by 
both the North and the South during the Re- 
construction Period. 

11. Tn what ways was the Negro a sufferer physi- 
cally and morally during the Eeconstruction 
Period? 

12.* How did the period especially effect the relig- 
ious life of the Negro? 

13. What mistakes were made by some mission- 
aries from the North? 

14.* How may we profit in our religious work by 
the mistakes of the past? 



104 The Upward Path 

References for Further Study. — Chapter III 
The First Years of Freedom. 

Avary : Dixie After the War, XII-XA^ XVII. 

DuBois: The Souls of the Black Folk, II. 

Merriam: The Negro and the Nation, XVI, 

XXVII. 

Page: The Negro: The Southerner's Problem, 

II. 

Price: The Negro, VIII, IX. 

Sinclair: The Aftermath of Slavery, II. 

Thomas: The American Negro, 44-47. 

Washington: Frederick Douglas, III. 



I 



INDUSTRIAL AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 



Gloucester County is the tide-water section of eastern 
Virginia. According to the census of 1890, Gloucester 
County contained a total population of 12,832, a little 
over one half being colored. . . . According to the pub- 
lic records, the total assessed value of the land in Glou- 
cester County is $666,132. Of the total value of the 
land, the colored people own $87,953. The buildings in 
the country have an assessed valuation of $466,127. The 
colored people pay taxes upon $79,387 of this amount. 
To state it differently, the Negroes of Gloucester County, 
beginning about forty years ago in poverty, have 
reached the point where they now own and pay taxes 
upon one-sixth of the real estate in this county. The 
property is very largely in the shape of small farms, 
varying in size from ten to one hundred acres. A large 
proportion of the farms contain about ten acres. 

— Bool'er T. Washington 

Looking back through the American history of the 
Negroes and considering the vicissitudes of their life, 
the hardships some of them have endured and tte re- 
sultant condition, their faithfulness in captivity, their 
peacefulness for two hundred years, their evolution from 
complete ignorance, their rapid adoption of the white 
man's methods, and their amiable life as a people, the 
fair-minded and unprejudiced student must accord them 
a high place among the laboring populations of tl» earth. 
As a race they have done well. As a race they are do- 
ing well. As a race they do produce criminals, so does 
our own; so does every race under the sun. 

— Earry StiUwell Edwards 



IV 
INDUSTRIAL AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 



A 



T the time of the Negro's emancipa- "?/fJR>l^ 



tion there was much doubt expressed 
as to his ability to meet the demands of 
human life upon the free man. " Will he 
be able to feed, clothe, and shelter him- 
self!" was the question asked. To which 
he has given a humble but brave answer. 
Since those first mad days of delirium and 
of license the race as a race (with excep- 
tions of course) has fed and clothed and 
sheltered itself. This has been done by 
patient, ceaseless toil, with many hard- 
ships and discouragements under which 
the weaker element has succumbed, but 
which the stronger majority has borne 
^"ith courageous cheerfulness. 

Harlan P. Beach says: " The African q^^^^^-^^^^^ 
has been stigmatized as lazy and wholly ir- 
responsible. His laziness is the legitimate 
result of having nothing worth while to do. 
His simple wants are easily supplied, and 
as work under indigenous conditions can 



108 The Upward Path 

secure him nothing more than is now in his 
possession, he yields before his tropical en- 
vironment. This is not the case where suf- 
ficient incentive for labor exists; as wit- 
ness the natives along the coast, on the 
great transport routes or railways in con- 
struction, and in the far interior where a 
work like the Stevenson Road suddenly de- 
velops surprising trustworthiness and 
willingness to labor. "^ 
'^'^"ououd Drunmiond says : "In capacity the 
African is fit to work, in inclination he is 
willing to work, and in actual experiment 
he has done it ; so that with capital enlisted 
and wise heads to direct these energies, 
with considerate employers who will re- 
member that these men are but children, 
this vast nation of the unemployed may yet 
be added to the slowly growing list of the 
world's producers." 
A ^^^^^ The African, while subjected to the con- 
Laborers (Jitious of American slavery, proved his 
ability to work with continuous regularity 
and in many respects intelligently. Those 
conditions involved compulsion and gaiid- 
ance, and on some rare occasions furnished 
a stimulus that proved an inner incentive 

1 Geography and Atlas of Protestant MissionSj 451. 



Industrial and Economic Progress 109 

to labor. The results of this last were al- 
ways marked. But when all his wants 
were met, mth nothing to gain or to lose 
by a greater or lesser etfort, he only 
worked when compelled, and escaped that 
compulsion whenever it was possible. 
Suddenly and entirely set free from this 
compulsion, it is not surprising that a little 
time was needed before he realized the 
compulsion of his needs as an incentive to 
voluntary effort. That the whole race is 
not yet so fully dominated by this incentive 
as to leave no vagrants and idlers among 
them is a patent fact to even the most cas- 
ual observer ; but to one who gives a closer 
study will be revealed a great host of 
earnest, faithful laborers whose industry 
is being rewarded by the full supply of 
life's necessities and, with many, by the 
accumulation of property. 

Having noted the three stages of the ^,"''*J^"' 
Negro's past life of which we have any 
knowledge, attention is now directed to his 
present condition, with its ind'mtions of 
undoubted progress during tht lialf-cen- 
tury of his freedom. 

As a first step in studying the present Distribution of 
status of the Negro in America, it is well 



110 The Upward Path 

to note the number and distribution of the 
race in continental United States. The 
twelfth census of the United States (1900) 
places the total number of Negroes at 
8,833,994, distributed as follows: 

Division Population Per cent, of 

total negro pop. 

North Atlantic 385,020 4.3 

South Atlantic 3,729,017 42.2 

North Central 495,751 5.6 

South Central 4,193,952 47.5 

Western 30,254 0.3 

Nearly all in This table shows that 89.7 per cent, of 

the South ^ 

the entire Negro population resides m thes 
fourteen Southern States, lea^dng only 
10.3 per cent, to be scattered over the 
whole of the remainder of the United 
States. More than half of that (5.7) are 
in the States of Pennsylvania, New York, 
Ohio, and Illinois — and are largely segre- 
gated in the four large cities of those 
States. In thirty of the States, out of 
every one hundred people, only three are 
Negroes: nnd in eighteen of these States 
there ai - less than one to the hundred ; 
while in two Southern States there are 
more than fifty-eight Negroes to forty-two 
whites, and in none of them does the pro- 



r 



Industrial and Economic Progress 111 

portion fall below nineteen in every hun- 
dred, except in Kentucky. 
In 1880 there were 6,580,793 Negroes in Marvelous 

' ' '-' Growth in 

this country. In twenty years there was Population 
an increase of 34.2 per cent. The race has 
not merely maintained its numbers but 
shows a marvelous growth. Since the cen- 
sus of 1900 was published nearly another 
decade has passed, and calculating the in- 
crease in the Negro population to be in the 
same ratio as in past decades the number 
is now estimated to be not less than 
10,000,000. 

The Negroes, constituting about one ^fliH^'^^f '*" 
ninth of the total population, form only Country 
about one fifteenth of the urban popu- 
lation and more than one seventh of the 
rural j^opulation. They are relatively less 
numerous in the large cities than in the 
towns. Among the five Southern cities 
having at least 100,000 inhabitants, the 
highest per cent, of Negroes is found at 
Memphis (48.8), Washington (31.1), New 
Orleans (27.1), Louisville (19.1), and 
Baltimore (15.6). In a group of Southern 
cities having between 25,000 and 100,000 
there are four having a higher per cent, 
than any of these — ranging from 51.8 to 



112 The Upward Path 

57.1. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, it is 58.5. 
Twelve cities in Georgia having between 
4,000 and 8,000 inhabitants have 48.2 per 
cent, of their combined i3opulation Negro. 
Washington has a larger per cent, of Negro 
population than any other city in the coun- 
try (86,702). They are relatively most 
numerous in Washington County, Missis- 
sippi, being 94.2 per cent, of the whole 
population. In South Carolina, Missis- 
sippi, and Louisiana more than half of the 
country poj^ulation is Negro. This distri- 
bution varies according to local conditions, 
and as time goes on there is a growing in- 
crease of Negroes in the larger cities. 
Since the census of 1900 there may be a 
very material difference in these figures. 
But the trend of the Negro in the South 
to the city is less than that of the white 
race, 
souther'nl?'! ^ glaucc at the figures showing the dis- 
Probiem" tributiou of the Negro race in the United 
States demonstrates that whatever prob- 
lem his presence presents, it is primarily 
^' the Southerner's problem," and must be 
worked out in the South. Those figures 
also demonstrate the fact that after forty 
years of free access to other parts of the 



Industrial and Economic Progress 113 

country and with no restraints upon his 
movements the Negro has chosen as a race 
to remain in the South. That he has so 
chosen is proof that the social and eco- 
nomic conditions in the South are such as 
make it more desirable for him to remain 
there than to go elsewhere. 

Edgar Gardiner Murphy says, in his o'^^ort^unu^ in 
Problems of the Present South: "The the^south^' 
broad and living decisions of great masses 
of men possess a dumb but interesting sig- 
nificance. They are never wholly irra- 
tional or sentimental. The Negro remains 
at the South because among the primary 
and the secondary rewards of honest life, 
he gets more of the primary rewards at 
the South than at the North. . . . The Ne- 
gro at the South is preacher, teacher, 
physician, and lawyer; he is in the dry 
goods business, the grocery, the livery, the 
real estate, and the wood and coal busi- 
ness ; as well as in the business of running 
errands and blacking boots. He is a shoe- 
maker and carpenter and blacksmith. He 
is where there is anything to do, and if he 
can do it well, he is usually treated fairly 
and paid for it honestly. Except in profes- 
sional capacities and as an undertaker he 



114 The Upward Path 

is employed by all — white and black — he 
does business with all. The South gives to 
the Negro something more merciful than 
sentiment and something more necessary 
than the unnegotiable abstractions of so- 
cial rights. The South gives to him the 
best gift of a civilization to an individual 
— the opportunity to live industriously 
and honestly. 
Discrimination '' Tlio race prcjudice in the North first 
forbids to the Negro the membership of 
the labor union, and then forbids to the 
employer the services of non-union labor.^ 
If the employer turn wholly to non-union 
men, he finds that rather than work beside 
the Negro these usually throw down their 
tools and walk out of the door of factory 
or shop. And so the dreary tale proceeds. 
The Negro at the North can be a waiter 
in hotel and restaurant (in some) ; he can 
be a butler or footman in club or house- 
hold (in some) ; or the hair-cutter or boot- 
black in the barber shop (in some) ; 
and I say ' in some ' because even 

1 The American Federation of Labor in its constitution forbids 
the exclusion of any one on account " of creed, color, sex, nation- 
ality, or politics," but many National and Local Unions affiliated 
■with the American Federation of Labor do exclude Negroes by 
constitutional provision. At this time, however, there are a larger 
number of Negro members of trade-unions than ever before. 



Industrial and Economic Progress 115 

the more menial offices of industry are 
being slowly but gradually denied to 
him. And what is the opportunity of such 
an environment to the development of self- 
dependence, what is the value to his labor 
of so inadequate and restricted a market 
for the complex capacities and the legiti- 
mate ambitions of an awakening manhood . 
. . . What are the 230ssibilities, there, of 
self-respect, of decency, of hope? "What 
are the pOJBsibilities of bread? 

' ' The economic problem lies at the very gP^^Klst*'* 
heart of the social welfare of any race. ^'^^'^ 
The possibility of honest bread is the 
noblest possibility of a civilization; and it 
is the indispensable condition of thrift, 
probity, and truth. No people can do 
what is right or love what is good if they 
cannot earn what they need. . . . The 
South has sometimes abridged the Negro 's 
right to vote, but the South has not yet 
abridged his right in any direction of hu- 
man interest or of honest effort to earn his 
daily bread . . . this lies at the very basis 
of life and integrity — ^whether individual 
or social." ^ 

Dr. W. E. B. DuBois in his pam- 

1 Murphy, Prollems of the Present South, 1S4, 185, 187. 



116 The Upward Path 

^DesfroySo V^^^U " The Philadelphia Negro, A So- 
ciological Study," describes how the slow, 
silent, pitiless operation of the social and 
economic forces are destroying the Negro 
body and soul in the Northern city. 
EarSc'reate! Tlio Principal of Tuskegee says on this 

'"^""''' subject: '^ It is in the South that the black 
man finds an open sesame in labor, indus- 
try, and business that is not surpassed 
anywhere. It is here that that form of 
slavery which prevents a man from selling 
his labor to whom he pleases on account of 
his color is almost unknown. We have had 
slavery in the South, now dead, that forced 
an individual to labor without a salary, but 
none that compelled a man to live in idle- 
ness while his family starved. ... If the 
Negro would spend a dollar at the opera, 
he will find the fairest opportunity at the 
North ; if he would earn the dollar, his fair- 
est opportunity is at the South. The op- 
portunity to earn the dollar fairly is of 
much more importance to the Negro just 
now than the opportunity to spend it at the 
opera." 
o'f"ReI{iz"n| Wlicu we consldcr the great host of 

Progress Negrocs Hviug in our land, and which will 
surely become greater, and how they are 



Industrial and Economic Progress 117 

affecting now and will affect still more in 
the future the life and civilization of our 
country, it becomes a matter of vital in- 
terest to the whole nation, and especially 
the South, to know, beside its growth in 
numbers, what has been the progress of 
this race in other matters. 

Much has been said about the white [aboring^ciass 
South hindering the progress of the Negro, ^"'^^^^^ 
based upon circumstances long since 
passed, upon insufficient knowledge of his 
present status, and upon half-truths 
greatly exaggerated by unconvinced and 
unconvincible prejudice. Not enough con- 
sideration has been given to certain simi- 
lar conditions that exist in every country 
and among other races. The struggle be- 
tween capital and labor, with its contrast 
between the rich and the poor; the usual 
features of poverty, ignorance, disease, 
and sin; the inefficient laborer and the un- 
employed, are problematic conditions and 
their manifestations are to be found in the 
North without reference to race. In the 
South the Negroes for the most part do the 
common, rough labor and, although the de- 
mand for skilled labor is growing ever 
greater, the vast majority of them remain 



118 The Upward Path 

•unskilled laborers. These, as everywhere, 
receive low wages, and they form a large 
number of the unemployed that will not 
or cannot work. These conditions tend to 
poverty of the laboring class everywhere. 
Rapid Economic Putting aside all preconceived ideas of 
the Negro's handicap in the South, let a 
few simple statements of his economic 
progress speak for themselves, and decide 
if it is fair to the Negro or his " brother 
in white ' ' to continue to represent him as 
*' evil-entreated "or " a debased, poverty- 
stricken people." These will show that, 
as a laboring class, he is as industrious, ca- 
pable, and successful and his condition as 
good as that of any similar class in any 
other country. That the mass of the race 
falls below its best is just as true of him 
as of others, but from the mass is grad- 
ually developing a larger and larger num- 
ber of the better and the best classes — 
more rapidly than in any country in Eu- 
rope — vastly more rapidly than in some of 
them. 
South not Booker T. Washington, when asked if 

opposed to cj / 

Negro's Progress ^j^e white mau iu the South wanted the 
Negro to improve his present condition, 
answered promptly, " Yes." And after 



Industrial and Economic Progress 119 

citing instances manifesting their interest 
in the Negro's education and progress, 
says: ''Such marks of the interest in the 
education of the Negro on the part of the 
Southern white people can be seen almost 
every day. Why should the white people, 
by their presence, words, and many other 
things, encourage the black man to get edu- 
cation, if they do not desire him to improve 
his condition? " ^ Again he says : " While 
race prejudice is strongly exhibited in 
many directions, in the matter of business, 
of commercial and industrial development, 
there is very little obstacle in the Negro's 
way. . .. . Exaggerated reports are writ- 
ten by newspaper men, who give the im- 
pression that there is a race conflict 
throughout the South, and that all South- 
ern white people are opposed to the Ne- 
gro's progress, overlooking the fact that 
while in some sections there is trouble, in 
most parts of the South there is a very 
large measure of peace, good- will, and mu- 
tual helpfulness. " ^ 

In 1860 all of the Negroes of working occupation 
age and in health were engaged in some 
kind of occupation, the gains of which were 

1 Washington, The Future of the American Negro, 236, 237. 

2 Ibid., 207. 



120 The Upward Path 

equal to their maintenance in all the neces- 
saries of life. This we have seen extended 
to such as were not capacitated for labor 
on account of age and sickness. The 
census of 1900 gives the whole number 
of Negroes over ten years of age as 
6,415,581, and the number over ten years 
of age engaged in gainful occupations as 
3,992,337. There are twenty-seven occu- 
pations that each give employment to more 
than 10,000.^ In all other occupations 
there were only 185,329. No statement is 
made of the number unemployed. Fifty- 
two per cent, of the whole specified under 
different heads, were engaged in agricul- 
ture, and of the half million " laborers " 
(not specified) it is probable that many 
were agricultural laborers. 
Encouraging '^ Qf those engaged in agriculture, nine- 
teen per cent, were farmers, planters, and 
overseers. These have risen from a low 
level to a higher level in their occupation 
and in Am.erican civilization. I might 
show how the Negro agricultural laborer 
of exceptional ability has become share 
tenant, then cash tenant, then part owner, 
and finally full owner with almost light- 

1 strong, aocial Progress, 1906, 174. 




St. Paul Normal and Industrial School, 
Laavrexceville, Virginia 




Farmers' Conference, Lawkenceville, Virginia 



Industrial and Economic Progress 121 

ning rapidity and against fearful odds. 
... In the South Central States since 
1860 Negro farmers have come to operate 
as owners and managers 95,624 farms and 
as tenants 348,805. ... In forty years 
287,933 Negroes have acquired control of 
farming lands in the South Atlantic States, 
of whom 85,355 are owners or managers. 
The total value of Negro farm property is 
conservatively estimated at $230,000,000. 
These facts spell progress unmistak- 
ably."^ 

To this value of farm lands Bishop ^Jjj^^ln^t"" 
Arnett adds the value of live stock and 
farming implements and brings the total 
value to $4,941,235. The acreage owned 
in Georgia and Virginia alone he gives as 
2,107,438 acres.- The United States census 
places the total number of acres owned 
and partly owned by Negroes at 15,996,- 
098. Many farms are very small and the 
soil poor and unproductive. 

We find that next to agriculture the oc- ^^.ZS^^ 
cupations which give employment to the 
largest number of Negroes are the kindred 
ones of servants and waiters, launderers 
and laundresses, housekeepers and stew- 

1 strong, Social Progress, 1906, 174. 

2 Ibid., 175. 



122 The Upward Path 

ards, janitors and sextons. These com- 
bined claim 708,470. Of coiarse this covers 
many grades of work, yet in the main they 
may be classed as domestic service. There 
is a great falling off in the efficiency of 
household servants since emancipation, 
and as the years go by this inefficiency in- 
creases. The cause of this is readily ex- 
plained by contrasting the fine training 
given by antebellum mistresses in all do- 
mestic industries, authoritatively en- 
forced, with the present day total lack of 
training of girls and boys in their own 
poor home surroundings or in the house- 
holds where they are temporarily em- 
ployed by those who are unwilling to be- 
stow time and trouble upon those who may 
leave their service at any hour. It is 
a rare occurrence when a white person, 
male or female, goes into domestic service 
in the South. 
Mine and Mill About 85,000 Ncgrocs are employed as 

Employees . 7 o x ./ 

miners and quarrymen, saw and planing- 
mill emi3loyees, tobacco and cigar factory 
operatives. These are practically the only 
employments of this class open to them 
except canning factories. In textile and 
other mills where machinery demands reg- 



Industrial and Economic Progress 123 

ular attendance and regulates the move- 
ments, they are not considered desirable 
employees. The reasons stated are that 
" they do not feel the obligation to work 
if inclination leads them to take a holiday, 
and they are rarely capable of the sus- 
tained attention and regularity of motion 
required by machinery," However just 
these reasons may be, the fact that they 
are not so employed works to the benefit 
of the race in that many who might be 
working in the unhealthy conditions of the 
cotton-mills are now in the open field, and 
their children are saved from the evils of 
child-labor which these present, and thus 
have ' ' time for school and play, ' ' of which ■ 
hundreds of white children of their age are 
being deprived. 

In 1900 the census reports 1,316,840 Ne- ^|?;;?|,f •" 
gro females engaged in gainful occupa- occupations 
tions. Of girls between ten and fifteen 
nearly one third are at work, between six- 
teen and twenty-four nearly one half, be- 
tween twenty-five and sixty-four about two 
out of every five. '' These figures show 
clearly that in the case of Negro women 
marriage does not withdraw them from 
the field of gainful occupations to any- 



124 The Upward Path 

thing like the extent that it does white 
women. ... A good part of the class be- 
tween twenty-five and sixty-four must 
have been married, as sixty-eight and 
three-tenths per cent, of all Negro women 
between those ages were reported as mar- 
ried. "^ 

M^the*'rsTfflcts ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^ dccided effect upon 
Children ^]^g homc Ufc and the rearing of children, 

since in a majority of cases the woman 
breadwinner must leave her home, or else 
her time is so occupied at home as to hin- 
der her from giving the attention required 
to keep her house and children in right con- 
dition. It is also sadly true that in many 
instances the man of the family eats '' the 
bread of idleness " that has been earned 
by the overworked wife or mother. And in 
some still sadder cases the idle man in the 
home is not a legal husband and holds him- 
self in no wise responsible for the support 
of the family. 
Women in A large uumbcr of Negro women are en- 

Agnculture . . '^ . 

gaged m agricultural pursuits, that is, 
they are employed on the large plantations 
as cotton pickers, either directly by the 
owner or as helpers of fathers and hus- 

1 United States Census, 1900, Bulletin No. S. 



Industrial and Economic Progress 125 

bands who are ' ' share tenants. ' ' A much 
larger number of women than men are en- 
gaged in domestic service, the latter be- 
ing able to secure more remunerative em- 
ployment in other lines. 

The census for 1900 reports 19,431 Ne- Sl"dw?ves"'' 
groes employed as nurses and midwives, 
the number having increased more than 
threefold during the decade, and nearly 
twice as fast as the whites. The position 
of nurse offers a large sphere of useful 
ness to Negro women who are properly 
trained for the profession, though they do 
not often receive the high wages of the 
white nurse. The cost of the latter makes 
the demand still greater for intelligent 
secondary Negro nurses for the invalid 
and convalescent. Southern white women 
are seeking also more and more for their 
children the care of reliable trained women 
who may somewhat take the place of the 
old-time black " Mammy " of blessed 
memory. 

The number of dressmakers and seam- g/I^^Tressel *"** 
stresses is stated to be 24,106. Twice that 
number could find employment at good 
wages if the character of their work was 
better. With but few exceptions it is care- 



126 The Upward Path 

lessly and ronghly done and presents an 
untidy appearance. If the teachers of 
sewing classes in industrial schools re- 
quired a higher standard of work it would 
be greatly to the future financial advan- 
tage of their pupils, 
^^"xradl^ Mechanical trades claim 57,926 as 
carpenters and joiners, brick and stone 
masons, blacksmiths, iron and steel 
workers. There was a marked decrease in 
the first-mentioned in the decade of 1890 
and 1900. In some trades the labor unions 
have excluded the Negroes in the South, 
but not to the extent that they have in the 
North, though it is feared that this will be 
extended in the future and may drive them 
out of many trades. 
'*'DSvSftageI ^' After emancipation came suddenly, in 
the midst of war and social upheaval, the 
first real economic question was the self- 
protection of freed working-men. There 
were three classes of them: the agricul- 
tural laborers, chiefly in the country dis- 
tricts; the house servants, in town and 
country; and the artisans, who were 
rapidly migrating to town. . . . These last 
met peculiar conditions. They had always 
been used to working under the guardian- 



Industrial and Economic Progress 127 

ship of a master, and even though that 
guardianship in some cases was but nomi- 
nal, yet it was of the greatest value for 
protection. . . . When he set up business 
for himself ... he could not bring suit in 
the name of an influential white master; 
if there was a contract to be made there 
was no responsible white patron to an- 
swer for the good performance of the 
work. ... At first the friendly patronage 
of the former master was given the freed- 
man and for some time the Negro mechanic 
held undisputed sway. Three occurrences, 
however, soon disturbed the situation: 

(1) the competition of white mechanics, 

(2) the efforts of the Negro for self -pro- 
tection, (3) the new industrial develop- 
ment of the South. . . . The Negro me- 
chanic did not carelessly throw away his 
large share of the Southern labor market 
and allow the white mechanic to supplant 
him. To be sure, the exslave was not 
alert, quick, and ready to meet competi- 
tion. His business hitherto had been to 
do work, but not to get work, save in ex- 
ceptional cases. As the white mechanic 
pressed forward, the only refuge of the 
Negro mechanic was lower wages. Even 



I 



128 The Upward Path 

in this he could not wholly succeed. The 
new industrial conditions made new de- 
mands on the mechanic which the Negro 
was not able to meet. . . . He was ignorant 
in those very lines of mechanical and in- 
dustrial development in which the South 
has taken the longest strides in the last 
thirty years. Who was to teach him? The 
older Negro mechanics could not teach 
what they had not learned. His white fel- 
low workmen were now his bitterest oppo- 
nents because of his race and the fact that 
he worked at low wages. . . . And yet the 
Negro mechanic has had a greater success 
in earning a living than the conditions 
might lead one to expect."* 
wofkmeS ^^^ carpenters are the largest body of 
skilled working-men and there are 20,800 
in the South. The States differ consider- 
ably in the proportion of different kinds of 
working-men: steam railway employees 
and carpenters lead in Virginia, the Caro- 
linas, and the Gulf States; iron and steel 
workers outnumber all but railway men in 
the mining state, Alabama, and the ma- 
sons and stone-cutters are numerous in 
Tennessee. The great Northern cities are ' 

1 DuBois, The Negro Artizan, 21-23. 



Industrial and Economic Progress 129 

conspicuous for scarcity of black artisans, 
while in the more typical Southern cities 
they are to be found in large numbers. In 
the Border State cities they are working in 
some of the important skilled occupations. 

It is hard to say what the future holds Segro^^rtisan 
for the Negro artisan. In many places he 
is in large demand, and works at the same 
wages as the white man. This is said to 
be especially true of the State of Texas. 
But unfortunately in many trades they do 
inferior work and lose out; even many of 
those who have had training in industrial 
schools prove unequal to actual work. 
They do not want to ' ' begin at the bottom 
and work up." Nor can the employer al- 
ways depend on them. " It does not mat- 
ter how anxious a contractor may be to 
complete the job, he [the Negro workman] 
feels under no obligation that will hinder 
him from taking ' a day off ' for pleas- 
ure. That 's his idea of liberty. ' ' ^ 

Alexander Hamilton, Jr., a Negro con- Personal 

' ' ~ Example and 

tractor of Atlanta, Georgia, has a flourish- Testimony 
ing business, and some of his patrons are 
among the best people of the city. Last 
year he did about $35,000 worth of work. 

1 E. H. Holmes, Prairie View Normal School, Texas. 



130 The Upward Path 

He says : ' ' The opportunity for wage earn- 
ing for the Negro artisan is good; he is 
always in demand. This demand does not 
exist because he works for a lower wage, 
for as a rule they get the prevailing scale 
of wages. Some white contractors employ 
Negroes from the foreman down. He is 
considered a swifter worker than the 
white, though in many cases he shows a 
lack of intelligent conceiDtion of the work 
he is to perform and of pride in its execu- 
tion. Good work, faithfulness to contract, 
gains a reputation that secures good 
wages. ' ' 
cobpe^atTJn ^^® Ncgrocs havo manifested in various 
ways their desire and ability for economic 
cooperation. Many failures have attended 
their efforts, but their many successes 
have brought not only present advantage 
but prophesy greater benefits for the fu- 
ture. This cooperative effort had its be- 
ginning where we might expect to find it — 
in the Church (the independent Churches 
established by the free Negroes in the 
North), and found its first exiDression in 
the Church benevolent societies. It soon 
made an effort to extend itself into the 
school, but in the early days met with much 



Industrial and Economic Progress 131 

hindrance here; later a large success has 
been reached. Along with the growing so- 
cial consciousness of the race there has 
risen to large proportions the benejficial 
and insurance societies. " No complete 
account of these is possible, so large is 
their number and so wide their ramifica- 
tion. Nor can any hard and fast line be- 
tween them and industrial insurance so- 
cieties be drawn save in membership and 
extent of business. These societies are 
also difficult to separate from secret soci- 
eties ; many have more or less ritual work, 
and the regular secret societies do much 
fraternal insurance business." 

The majority of the benevolent societies fodS"' 
are purely local and their work limited to 
the payment generally of from $2.50 to $5 
for initiation fee and fifty cents dues 
monthly, and the paying out from this 
fund of sick dues, varying from $1,50 per 
week to $5, and burial expenses of the mem- 
bers. These societies have been organized 
by the hundred, and many of them serve a 
good purpose. They frequently have long 
and some of them curious names. Regalia 
of all kinds is worn, and the society hav- 
ing the most of it is generally the most 



132 The Upward Path 

popular. Many of these have died out or 
been absorbed into larger societies having 
more of the nature and management of in- 
surance societies. The larger Negro in- 
dustrial insurance societies now operating 
form a list of sixty-four, with many smaller 
ones. If a complete report could be had 
of even the one State of Virginia, it would 
show that more than 300,000 colored men, 
women, and children carry some form of 
insurance. 
^"^"oK^zTtlon ^^^ True Eeformers constitutes prob- 
ably the most remarkable Negro organiza- 
tion in this country. It was organized in 
1881, by the Eev. William Washington 
Brown, an exslave, of Habersham County, 
Georgia, as a fraternal beneficiary institu- 
tion, composed of male and female mem- 
bers numbering one hundred, and a capital 
of $150. It was to be a joint-stock com- 
pany, with shares of the value of $5 each. 
The Grand Fountain of True Eeformers 
is now a mutual insurance association hav- 
ing 2,678 fountains, or lodges, with mor6 
than 100,000 members, of whom there are 
now benefited in the Fountain 50,636. It 
has a " Eosebud Department " with more 
than 30,000 children. The death benefits 



Industrial and Economic Progress 133 

paid by all departments up to date have 
been $1,356,989, with over $1,500,000 in sick 
benefits. Its total annual income is put at 
$450,000. It has put into operation a sav- 
ings-bank, with a capital stock paid in of 
$100,000 and a surplus fund of $95,000. It 
incorporated a mercantile and industrial 
association that conducts a system of stores 
doing an annual business of over $100,000 
and publishes a weekly paper. The Re- 
former, that has a circulation of 19,000 
copies. It has opened a hotel in Richmond 
that accommodates a hundred and fifty 
guests, has established an old folks' home, 
with a farm of over six hundred acres, and 
has incorporated a building and loan asso- 
ciation that has as its object the encourage- 
ment of industry, frugality, home building, 
and saving among its members. Its real 
estate department has under its control 
twenty-seven buildings and three farms 
valued at $400,000, which belong to the 
institution, and leases twenty-three other 
buildings. 

The total income of this class of societies ^SStrof 
cannot be far from $3,000,000, and their 
real estate and other capital probably 
amounts to $1,500,000. The chief criticism 



Societies 






134 The Upward Path 

of all these societies is the unscientific ba- 
sis of their insurance business, neverthe- 
less there are signs of improvement. 
a There is also wide room for peculation 
and dishonesty in industrial insurance. 
Protective legislation, especially in the 
South, is driving out the worst offenders, 
but some still remain. On the whole, how- 
ever, these societies have done three 
things: (1) encouraged economic coopera- 
tion and confidence, (2) consolidated small 
capital, (3) taught business methods."^ 
Secret Societies Amoug the socrct societics, the Free Ma- 
sons report, in 1899, 1,960 lodges with a 
membership of 55,713, property valued at 
$1,000,000, and an income of about $500,- 
000. The Odd Fellows report, in 1904, the 
number of lodges as 4,643 with a member- 
ship of 285,931. Its property is valued at 
$2,500,000, and over $1,000,000 was spent 
between 1900 and 1906 in its benevolences. 
In 1905, the Knights of Pythias had 1,536 
lodges with 69,331 members, propertj^ val- 
ued at $321,919, and in the two previous 
years spent in its relief work $124,146. 
This order has an insurance department. 
The United Brothers of Friendship, in 

i Atlanta University Publications, No. 12. 



r^... 



Industrial and Economic Progress 135 

1905, had a membersliip of about 75,000 
and valued their property at $500,000, with 
large amounts expended in benevolence. 
The order of Elks did not organize until 
1899, and in eight years they reported 61 
lodges with 5,000 members. The Grand 
Order of the Galilean Fisherman was or- 
ganized in 1856, and has at least $250,000 
worth of real estate. Besides these there 
are many smaller secret societies having 
the same general purpose as the larger or- 
ders — the care of the sick, burial of the 
dead, and relief of the poor. From the 
figures given it seems that the Negro se- 
cret orders in the United States own be- 
tween four and five million dollars worth 
of property and collect each year at least 
$1,500,000.1 

Cooperative benevolence finds its mani- Benevofence 
festation in between 75 and 100 homes and 
orphanages supported wholly or largely 
by Negroes. Some of these are well-pro- 
vided for and well-managed ; many of them 
need much in every way. There are about 
forty hospitals conducted by Negroes, in- 
cluding the Freedmen's Hospital of Wash- 
ington, District of Columbia, which the 

1 Atlanta Uniyerslty Publications, No. 12. 



136 The Upward Path 

government supports. Nearly every town 
in the South has a colored cemetery o^Tied 
and conducted by Negroes, making a total 
of probably about 500. 
Negro Banks i^ 1865, tlic national congress incor- 
IDorated the Freedmen's Savings and 
Trust Company. Through " speculative, 
indiscreet, and culpable transactions," the 
bank failed, in 1874, entailing disastrous 
losses upon the ignorant, trusting, needy 
Negroes amounting to over $3,000,000. 
After this disgraceful swindle the Negro 
went to banking for himself, and there are 
now in the United States forty-one Negro 
banks, many of them doing a flourishing 
business. 
^"eSisl ^^^^ history of cooperative business 
among the Negroes is long and interesting. 
Of some it is simply a record of failure, but 
failure is often educative, as it has been 
in this case, and leads to better, wiser ef- 
fort. Wliile there have been hundreds of 
cooperative business ventures of various 
kinds that have failed, there are hundreds 
that continue in operation with a measure 
of success. 
'^""mIsSppI ^^^^ estate and credit societies have re- 
sulted in Negro settlements in towns, some 



Industrial and Economic Progress 137 



!d' 



of which have had fine success. Among 
these is Mound Bayou, Mississippi, which 
was incorporated in 1890. The town em- 
braces about seventy-five acres of land, is 
well laid out, with plank walks, and has a 
population of 400, many living in neat 
homes. It is surrounded by a neiglibor- 
ing population of about 3,000, who occupy 
their own farms, ranging from 200 to 600 
acres each, and comprising altogether 30,- 
000 acres, producing a variety of crops but 
chiefly cotton. There are over forty busi- 
ness establishments, and the total value of 
business amounts to almost three-quarters 
of a million dollars. There are eleven 
creditable public buildings, including two 
graded schools.^ 

The Farmers' Improvement Society of Farmers* 

m • T 1 T-. rN • Improvement 

Texas, organized by R. L. Smith, m 1890, society 
has been of great benefit to many of the 
Negroes of that State. The members are 
pledged (1) to fight the credit or mortgage 
system, (2) to improve the method of 
farming and care of stock, (3) to cooperate 
in buying and selling, (4) to care for the 
sick and bury the dead, (5) to ^ -y and im- 
prove homes. The effect of the movement 

1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 12. 



138 The Upward Path 

to break up the credit system was so 
marked that in six years other communi- 
ties were induced to accept the plan. 
Branches are established in about 400 dif- 
ferent communities in Texas and Okla- 
homa. A great improvement has resulted 
in the character and conduct of the farms 
and homes, in agi'icultural fairs and lec- 
tures, and the establishment of an agricul- 
tural and industrial college. 
Business Men j^ q^q mcdium-sizcd Southern cities 

there are 160 Negro business men. In one 
of these, Houston, Texas, there are 41, 
with a capital of $237,450 invested in their 
business. Two of these, a building con- 
tractor and a real estate broker, have been 
in the same business for thirty years, and 
eleven have held their own for over fifteen 
years. In Richmond, Virginia, nine busi- 
ness men have an invested capital of 
$230,500. 
^pSils With such an array of facts, who can 
doubt the progress of the Negro in indus- 
trial life and pursuits? 



Industrial and Economic Progress 139 

SUGGESTED QUESTIONS ON CHAPTEE IV 

Aim: To Learn How the Negroes Have Progressed 
Industrially and Economically Since Their 
Emancipation 

1. What conditions of the past, in Africa, in 
American slavery, and the first years of free- 
dom, has the Negro been obliged to overcome? 

2. Did the Anglo-Saxon race rise suddenly? 

2. How many years has it taken the Anglo-Saxon 
to reach his present condition? 

4.* "What are some of the advantages and disad- 
vantages that the Negro has had compared 
•with the Anglo-Saxon? 

5. Why have the majority of the Negroes re- 
mained in the South? 

6. Do you think that they will continue to remain, 
in the South, and why? 

7.* Compare the advantages, economically and in- 
dustrially, that the Negroes have in the South 
and the North. 

8. Where are the physical conditions more favor- 
able ? 

9. To what extent can the people in the North aid 
in helping the Negro? 

10. Why are the cities especially destructive to the 
physical life of the Negroes? 

11. Do the cities have an equally bad effect upon 
the other races? 

12. Do the women and children among the poor 
Negroes suffer any more than among the poor 
of other races under similar conditions? 

13. In what occupations do the Negro men and 
women find the most employment, and why? 

14. What is the chief value of the societies organ- 
ized among the Negroes? 



140 The Upward Path 

15. What are the conditions that must be consid- 
ered in estimating the progress of any race? 

16. Enumerate all the evidences of industrial and 
economic progress among the Negroes. 

17.* In view of the past conditions do you believe 
that the Negroes have made substantial prog- 
ress? State reasons. 

18.* How may the Negroes make themselves more 
useful in the industrial and economic system 
of our country? 

19. Sum up the chief hindrances to more rapid 
progress among the Negroes. 

20.* What can the whites both North and South do 
to assist the Negroes to improve their indus- 
trial and economic conditions? 

Eeferences for Further Study. — Chapter IV* 

Industrial and Economic Conditions Among the Negroes. 
Baker: Following the Color Line, Part I, IV. 
Galloway: " The Negro as a Business Man," 
World's Work, June, '08. 
Miller: Race Adjustment, 179-198. 
Park: " Agricultural Extension Among Ne- 
groes," World To-Day, Aug., '08. 
Sinclair: The Aftermath of Slavery, VIII. 
Smith: " The Uplifting Negro Co-operation 
Society," World's Work, July, '08. 
Stone: Studies in the American Race, Part II, 
IV, V. 

Washington: " The American Negro of To- 
Day, " Putnam's Magazine, Oct., '07. 



1 On this chapter and those that follow the religious periodicals 
and home mission magazines will be found helpful. Other publica- 
tions such as the " The Southern Workman," " Atlanta University " 
and " American Academy of Science " should be consulted. 



Industrial and Economic Progress 141 

Washington: " A Town Owned by Negroes," 
World's WorTc, July, '07. 

Washington: " Negro Homes," Century Maga- 
zine, May, '08. 

Washington and DuBois: The Negro in the 
South, II, III. 



SOCIAL CONDITIONS 



Thirty years ago, when I was a boy in Georgia's 
central city, one part of the suburbs given over to Ne- 
groes contained an aggregation of unfurnished, ill-kept, 
rented cabins, the occupants untidy, and for the most ji 
part shiftless. Such a thing as virtue among the female I 
members was in but few instances conceded. Girls from si 
this section roamed the streets at night, and vice was 
met with on every corner. Eecently, in company with a ' 
friend who was interested in a family residing in the 
same community, I visited it. I found many families 
occupying their own homes, flowers growing in the yard - 
and on the porches, curtains at the windows, and an air | 
of homelike serenity overflowing the entire district. In 
the house wo entered, the floors were carpeted, the white 
walls were hung with pictures, the mantels held bric-a,- 
brac. In one room was a parlor organ, in another a sew- 
ing-machine, and in another a piano, where a girl sat 
at practise. In conversation with the people of the house 
and neighborhood, we heard good ideas expressed in ex- 
cellent language and discovered that every one with whom 
we came in contact could read and wi'ite, while many 
were much further advanced. Just one generation lies 
between the two conditions set forth, and the change 
may be said to indicate the urban Negro 's mental and 
material progress throughout the whole South. Of those 
who see only gloom ahead for the Negro, the question 
may be fairly asked. Where else in the world is there a 
people developing so rapidly? The men who have pur- 
chased these houses, the women who keep them, have 
achieved a higher standard of citizenship, and the reac- 
tion on their descendants has, so far as their influence is 
operative, helped to free the streets of vice. So far as 
this community is concerned, one great stride toward the 
elevation of the race has been taken and the pace set. 

— Earry Stillwell Edwards 



I 



SOCIAL CONDITIONS 

THE Negro in Africa had no knowledge j^'^^g'^Llfe 
of a home, except as a shelter from 
the elements and his enemies, physical and 
spiritual. The home of the American 
slave, though often dear to him, lacked of 
necessity some of the essentials of a true 
home, yet from it and his contact with the 
home and home life of his owner he formed 
an ideal, however dim, toward which he 
was to struggle when his circumstances 
were changed. As a freedman the Negro 
was practically a man without a home, a 
people without a social form, a race with- 
out a country. 

From the crudest elements, blended of HJmeui" 
poverty and ignorance, desire and hope, he 
began to construct a new standard of life 
and form about himself certain social 
forms by imitating what he saw the white 
people have and do. Possibly he was not 
always able to distinguish between the 
good and bad examples set before him, or 



146 The Upward Path 

chose the latter because it was easier to 
human nature, but he also chose in innu- 
merable instances the best things which he 
has learned how to do by doing; and out of 
his persistent efforts a home and social life 
is being evolved that, far from perfect as it 
yet may be, shows a great advance beyond 
his past, a decided step in his onward way 
toward Christian civilization. 
Moving Onward The white man 's laws and moral stand- 
ards, his counsel and helping hand, have 
all aided the Negro in his progress, but the 
best part of his achievement, and that 
which makes it most worth while, has come 
through his own courageous, patient seek- 
ing for that which was best as far as he 
knew it. Mistakes, failures, offenses have 
come, as needs they must, but undismayed 
he is still moving onward. 

'^^^"' Ownership '' "^^^ white or black man, by the sweat 
of whose brow a home has been bought, 
is by virtue of that act an infinitely better 
citizen." The increased sense of self- 
respect that comes with such ownership 
leads to a deeper sense of obligation for 
the protection and maintenance of the 
home and the character of family life. It 
also brings an increased sense of responsi- 




Two Houses Uwnkd by a Negro, in One of Which He Lives. 
Charleston, West Virginia 




'?■^i\i^^^ — "--ssSfj.. 



iSiEGRo Cabin 



Social Conditions 147 

bilities for the public good and of personal 
advantage in the preservation of law. All 
this is becoming more and more manifest 
among the better class of Negroes who are 
of course the home owners. 

With this view of the case, it is of great f^"^poEi 
importance in our study of present-day ^'^^^^ 
conditions to consider the growth in num- 
ber and character of the homes of the Ne- 
gro race. We have seen his need of such 
preparation for and experience in citizen- 
ship to fit him for an intelligent apprecia- 
tion of not only the privilege, but the re- 
sjionsibility of the ballot-box. If the loss, 
in a large measure, of this privilege has 
turned his attention from politics toward 
home-building it was a blessing to him as 
well as to the coimtry. He felt and still 
feels afflicted by the laws restraining his 
franchise, but as he comes by degrees into 
possession of the required qualifications, 
and by an intelligent use of his political 
rights when gained manifests his just 
claim to them, he will wipe out the infamy 
that attaches to his first deplorable effort 
in the political arena. In that day he will 
understand yet once again that " God 
meant it for good." 



148 The Upward Path 

^"•iHom^ ^^ liave noted the large number of 
farms that are owned by the Negroes, 
which of course in practically every in- 
stance means a home to each farm. Be- 
sides these rural homes, there are a still 
larger number in the towns and cities. The 
whole number of homes owned by Negroes 
is stated as 372,414. Of these 255,156 are 
known to be absolutely free from encum- 
brance. The character of these homes 
varies from the few handsome residences 
of the wealthy class, and the second-grade 
of neat, comfortable houses of the well-to- 
do laboring class, to the one-room cabin in 
the country or the dilapidated cottage in 
town or city. Comparing the number of 
homes of all kinds with the whole Negro 
population, it will be seen that the ' ' home 
owner " is still a small class, and that the 
great mass of the race is as yet homeless 
or housed in rented tenements on the farm 
or in the city, or living in the homes of em- 
ployers, 

safSrdI Booker T. Washington says: ^' An in- 
creasing number of Negro homes have 
gone along with an increasing sense of im- 
portance of the safeguards which the home 
throws about the family and of the house- 



Social Conditions 149 

hold virtues which it encourages and 
makes possible. ... In every Southern 
city there is a Negro quarter. It is often 
a cluster of wretched hovels, situated in 
the most dismal and unhealthy part of the 
city. They all have the same dingy, dirty, 
God-forsaken appearance. These are the 
places that are usually pointed out as the 
Negro homes. 

" But in recent years there have grown "hrTft^ "^ **** 
up, usually in the neighborhood of a school, 
small Negro settlements of an entirely dif- 
ferent character. Most of them are modest 
cottages, but they are clean . . . and 

1^ have a wholesome air of comfort and thrift. 

|» . . . Within you will find an air of de- 
cency and self-respect, pictures and books. 
. . . These are the homes of the thrifty 
laboring class who generally have some 
education. Some of them have gone 
through a college or industrial school, and 
their children are at school. ... In the 
same communities you will find other 

h homes, larger and more comfortable, many 
of them handsome modern buildings with 
all the evidences of taste and culture that 
you might expect to find in any other home 
of the same size and appearance. If you 



150 The Upward Path 

should inquire here, you would learn that 
the people living in these homes are suc- 
cessful merchants, doctors, and teachers. 
. . . They are not usually recognized as 
Negro homes. 
Some < ' gtill handsomer houses here and there 

Handsome 

Homes ^j.q ^o be f ouud. The fact is that white men 
know almost nothing about this better 
class of homes. They know the criminals 
and the loafers, because they have dealt 
with them in the courts, or because they 
collect rent from the places where they 
congregate and live. They know to a cer- 
tain extent the laboring classes whom they 
employ, and they know something, too, of 
the Negro business men with whom they 
have dealings ; but they know almost noth- 
ing about the doctors, lawyers, teachers, 
and preachers, who are usually the leaders 
of the Negro people, the men whose opin- 
ions, teaching, and influence are, to a very 
large extent, directing and shaping the 
healthful, hopeful constructive forces in 
these communities. 
Influence of '^ Ju the sectious whcrc the influence of 

Hampton and , 

Tuskegee g^(,jj schools as Hamptou and Tuskegee is 
felt you will find a marked growth in re- 
cent years not only in the size of the home 



Je 
?ins 
oes 



Social Conditions 151 

—rarely ever one room— but in its neat ap- 
pearance within and without, having out- 
buildings and fences in repair and white- 
washed. Notable instances of this may be 
seen in Gloucester County, Virginia, where 
a large number of Hampton students have 
settled, and in Alabama around Tuskegee 
and in Calhoun County. 

" The average person who does not live ^„'^,!J^rS 
in the South has the impression that the ^^^"' 
Southern white people do not like to see 
Negroes live in good homes. Of course 
there are narrow-minded white people liv- 
ing in the South as well as in the North 
and elsewhere; but as I have gone through 
the South, and constantly come into con- 
tact with the members of my race, I am sur- 
prised at the large numbers who have been 
helped and encouraged to buy beautiful 
homes by the best element of white people 
in their community. I think I am safe in 
saying that the sight of a well-kept, at- 
tractive home belonging to a Negro does 
not call for as much adverse comment in 
the South as it does in the Northern 
States." 1 

Dr. Edward Gardner Murphy in writing 

1 Washington, Century Magazine, May, 1908. 



152 The Upward Path 

Wholesome of the NesTro home life says : ' ' All promise 

Home Life " . 

and all attaimnent are worth while, but the 
only adequate measure of social efficiency 
and the only ultimate test of essential race 
progress lies in the capacity to create the 
home; and it is in the successful achieve- 
ment of the idea and the institution of the 
family, of the family as accepted and hon- 
ored under the conditions of Western civil- 
ization, that we are to seek the real criti- 
cism of Negro progress. . . . His heritage 
has given him but small equipment for the 
achievement of his task. And yet the Ne- 
gro home exists. That its existence is, in 
many cases, but a naive pretense, that Ne- 
gro life often proceeds upon its way with 
a disregard — partly immoral, partly non- 
moral— of our accepted marital conditions, 
is evident enough. And yet those who 
would observe broadly and closely will 
find a patiently and persisently increasing 
number of true families and real homes, a 
number far in excess of the popular esti- 
mate, homes in which with intelligence, 
probity, industry, and an admirable sim- 
plicity, the man and the woman are creat- 
ing our fundamental institution. Scores of 
such homes, in some cases hundreds, exist 



Social Conditions 153 

in numbers of our American communities 
—exist for those who will try to find them 
and will try sympathetically to know them. 
But one of the tragic elements of our situa- 
tion lies in the fact that of this most hon- 
orable and most hopeful aspect of Negro 
life the white community, North and 
South, knows practically nothing. ' ' ^ 

It has been the pleasure of the author to ^^1^'^^^*^^ 
enter some of the true homes of old-time 
colored friends and it is now a privilege to 
bear personal testimony to the honest, re- 
spectable, wholesome family life lived 
therein. They are homes where parents 
are seeking to rear and train their children 
aright, and to make their aims high and 
their ambitions noble. The men have an 
honest pride in the achieving of a home 
and the women seek to make those homes 
attractive for their families and an influ- 
ence for good. In many of these homes the 
young girls are shielded from the many 
temptations and dangers that come to 
their race and sex in going out to service. 
One mother said : ' ' Knowing what I know, 
I prefer to keep my daughters in my home, 
though their wages would be a help to us. 

1 Problems of the Present South, 166. 



154 The Upward Path 

If they stay at night where they work, they 
are not always protected; if they come 
home at night, that means they are late 
and very early on the street unprotected. ' ' 
The quality of these homes and the care of 
the girlhood of such families may serve as 
a partial reason why it is not always the 
most desirable class that go out to service, 
and may suggest some changes in the con- 
ditions and requirements of service. It 
does not follow that these women live in 
idleness. They do the work in their own 
homes. Many take in sewing or go out to 
sew by the day. Some teach or enter upon 
other employments for which their measure 
of education qualifies them. 
"SIsTlICr There are, however, very many so-called 
homes where the worst conditions prevail, 
and the greatest lack of the race as a whole 
is proper home surroundings and training. 
In many instances this comes from igno- 
rance or viciousness of the parents, in 
others from that poverty that takes both 
parents away from home to work and 
leaves the children to " run wild " in the 
worst section of the city and to learn all 
the evil of the street. 
Much as has been achieved by the race 



Social Conditions 155 

in owning and making homes, the great 5'HJ.me^^"'*' 
lack is still in the home life and the end to 
which their chief energies should be di- 
rected, through church, school, societies, 
and clubs, should be the bettering of home 
life. The home is the heart of Christian 
civilization. From it flows the life-blood 
of a race or nation. The center of the home 
is the woman, and its existence for good or 
bad depends largely upon her as wife and 
mother. Therefore the right education and 
training of the Negro woman is of the 
greatest importance to the future of the 
race. If she be imbued with the sanctities 
of life, she will keep herself and her home 
pure and clean. If she be taught the dig- 
nity of labor and trained to do her duty in 
the practical things pertaining to a real 
home, she will make it more desirable to 
her family than an evil outside life. If she 
be taught to appreciate aright the sacred- 
ness of motherhood and the proper care of 
her children, she will send forth noble sons 
and daughters. 

The Negro is eminently social in his ^°c?aitife 
nature. As a race he loves to congregate 
and to communicate. He naturally loves a 
crowd, whatever may be the occasion for 



156 The Upward Path 

bringing it together — an excursion, a 
church service, or a circus, a wedding, or 
a death-bed. His pliable emotions fit them- 
selves to any occasion with wonderful 
facility, and reach a state of excitement 
with alacrity and enjoyment. 
Social Nature This social uaturc leads them to segre- 

Leads to ^ _ o 

Segregation gate lu towu or city where there is quick 
access to each other and opportunity to 
talk— either in gossip or quarrel. It makes 
it far easier to secure Negro labor in em- 
ployments where a large number work to- 
gether. It often hinders regular work and 
steady gains. The irresistible attractions 
of an excursion will draw the laborer from 
his work and together with his whole fam- 
ily he will spend on it all he has saved, 
^""oid^s'odai With education and a growing refine- 
customs nient and restraint resulting from it, we 
see in the better class a gradual elimina- 
tion of the emotional excitement attendant 
upon the old social customs. Indeed, there 
may be too great a tendency to imitate the 
formal etiquette and half-hearted manner 
which the Anglo-Saxon shows in his efforts 
at enjoyment. 
Upper and Social distiuctious have led to the 

Lower Classes 

formation of a class spirit as well-defined 



Social Conditions 157 

in the Negro race as in the white. There 
is the upper class and the lower classes. 
Strange to say, this brings about a peculiar 
state of affairs. The lower classes resent 
the effort of their own upper class to make 
a social inequality within the race, al- 
though they accept their inequality with 
the better-class white people for whom 
they work. The first-class white people as 
a general thing know better and prefer the 
Negro servant class to those of " colored 
society ' ' rank. On the other hand, we find 
the latter class brought into closer associa- 
tion with the poor, laboring class of the 
white race residing nearer to them, who, 
while clinging tenaciously to white su- 
premacy in sentiment, admit them in a cer- 
tain way into social relations. 

The " society " circle of colored people society circie 
have their handsome or pretty homes 
opened for the same kind of entertain- 
ments that white people have, and extend 
their hosj)itality as generously to their 
own set; and, in proportion to their means, 
these entertainments are made as attrac- 
tive by the fine dress of the women, the 
floral decorations, the well-served menu, 
and the character of the music. Their par- 



158 The Upward Path 

ties, their weddings, their funerals, are 
made as nearly as possible like those of the 
white people, and in some instances they 
could not be distinguished from them ex- 
cept by the color of the participants, and 
sometimes that is not very marked. 

an?Fun Blood Thcro is a point in the social life of the 
Negroes ^egro that is difficult and delicate to han- 
dle. The Negroes recognize and so do the 
Southern white people a condition which 
forms an inner problem to the much-dis- 
cussed " Eace Problem." And this is the 
class distinction based on color that is 
drawing apart the mixed blood from the 
full-blood Negro. There are no defined 
rules governing this classification, because 
of its varying degrees, and there are many 
deviations from the line even when there 
is a marked difference to one side or the 
other. Yet that line is growing more and 
more evident in both social and religious 
life. 
^in"SiIi ^^ ^ general thing those that continue 

^nt^imlod their education beyond the common school 
are those of mixed blood— the mulattoes, 
quadroons, and octoroons. This grows in 
a large measure out of the eliminating 
process wherein the mentally fit survive. 



Social Conditions 159 

But there are other contributory causes 
that have a large effect. The Negro mother 
often feels great pride in her half-white 
child because of the beauty and intelli- 
gence it frequently possesses, and feels am- 
bitious for it to rise in the world, therefore 
more care is taken of its appearance and 
greater effort is made to secure its educa- 
tion than if it were black. It is frequently 
not so strong physically as the black child, 
and is, as much as possible, shielded from 
the hardships of life. This is more es- 
pecially true of the girl. All these things 
find a result in the character and life of the 
child. Often the outcome is good as far 
as its own attainments are concerned, but 
with its advantages there comes the natural 
feeling of superiority over the less favored. 
'' Like likes like " is the proverbial basis 
of all social life. These favored, educated, 
successful people of mixed blood are by far 
the largest element of the select social cir- 
cle—an upper-tendom that more or less 
wishes to avoid association with the real 
^' brother in black," but cannot. In some 
things the law of the land holds them to- 
gether, in others the still more difficult 
laws of relationship. 



160 The Upward Path 

Mixed Blood in A visit to aliTiost anv of the Ne^To insti- 

Select Social ^ ^ . 

Circles tutions of higher education will furnish 
proof of what has been said in the fact that 
the large majority of the pupils, especially 
of the girls, are light-colored. There are 
also what they call " tony " churches in 
which can be seen very few black faces, 
and the same thing may be noted in many 
of their high-class social entertainments. 
This color-line is not so distinctly drawn 
but that the full-blooded, well-educated 
professional or successful business man, 
and his wife, may find entrance. Nor is 
the line drawn strictly on education and 
worthiness. The light-colored beauty, man 
or woman, who assumes a certain style of 
dress and manner may be found there, and 
''no questions asked." 
ciassDi^jnc^ons Thcse distiuct classcs in the Negro social 
to Race j^f^ ^^.^ f^^ morc frequently found in the 
city than in the country, and in some cities 
more than in others, and this may result 
from the different degrees of educational 
advantages to be found in different locali- 
ties. It may well be said that class dis- 
tinctions that divide the educated from the 
uneducated, the rich from the poor, are to 
be found among all civilized peoples. 



Social Conditions 161 

Granted, but the point here is that yet 
more and more the higher class among the 
Negroes is being made up of the mixed 
blood, and this social drawing away of the 
' ' high class ' ' from the ' ' masses, ' ' if color 
be the cause, while the individual cannot 
be blamed, is resulting in several ways to 
the detriment of the race. For although 
there are a large number of mixed blood 
who are the children of parents who are 
both mulattoes and are born in wedlock, 
a great number are half white, and are, 
therefore, in all the Southern States ille- 
gitimate. Thus it would seem that a pre- 
mium is put on amalgamation resulting 
from immorality. 

It must not be understood from what has evm Results of 

Amalgamation 

been written that those of mixed blood are 
all superior to the full-blood Negroes, for 
some of the worst, most stupid, most dan- 
gerous elements of the race are to be found 
among them. While they preponderate in 
the higher schools and higher society, these 
represent but a small proportion of the 
whole race, or even of the mixed blood, of 
whom it is estimated there are 3,000,000 
in the United States. The general results 
of amalgamation have proved it to be an 



162 The Upward Path 

evil for both races, and therefore both 
should do all in their power to preserve 
race integrity. 
True Leaders Tlicrc is a still higher class, though a 
much smaller one than the '* society set '* 
— true leaders who are doing their part 
nobly toward helping others who have 
been less fortunate. Among these may be 
found men who are principals of colleges, 
and teachers, physicians, lawyers, minis- 
ters, graduates of colleges, North and 
South. There are also women of means, 
refinement, and culture who are spending 
time, strength, and money for the uplift of 
the women of their race who need their 
help. These feel that they must keep ia 
touch with the men and women whose ad- 
vantages and opportunities have not been 
as great as theirs, if they would save the 
race. May we not hope that as the influence 
of this class extends, it will counteract the 
evil arising from prejudice and resentment 
caused by other conditions and prove to be 
the bond that will draw together in love 
and helpfulness the jarring elements in 
their own race, and be ready to cooperate 
with men and women of like minds in the 
white race who would seek a righteous 



Social Conditions , 163 

solution of the race problem. It is hoped 
that this spirit of cooperation may increase. 

No discussion of the social life of the !;[f*So„of 
Negro would be complete without consid- Colored women 
ering the National Association of Colored 
Women and the work being done by the 
various affiliated clubs that include in their 
membership at least 10,000 women. While 
the object of these clubs, to a certain ex- 
tent, is self-culture, it is to a much larger 
extent philanthropic and charitable. They 
are formed of the leading women of the 
race and represent the best class intellec- 
tually as well as socially. These are the 
women who most fully realize the condi- 
tion of the mass of their people and, feel- 
ing a keen responsibility for its better- 
ment, are seeking through the educational 
and institutional features of their clubs to 
establish higher standards of life in the 
home and family relations. 

This association was incorporated in q^'"^*^^* 
1904, and is therefore still in its incipiency. 
Some of its work is crude, but its influence 
has already been for good in those commu- 
nities where conditions are favorable, and 
there is every reason to believe that a 
larger sphere and better results lie before 



164 The Upward Path 

it in the future. The organization grew 
out of the *' felt need of united and sys- 
tematic effort," and the hope of furnish- 
ing '' evidence of moral, mental, and ma- 
terial progress made by the [Negro] 
people. ' ' Its object is to secure ' ' harmony 
of action and cooperation among all wo- 
men in raising to the highest plane, home, 
moral, and civil life;" and its motto, ' ' Lift- 
ing As We Climb," shows how the work is 
to be done. 
wjdeRan^e_of Mys. Bookcr T. WasMugton, vice-presi- 
dent at large of the National Association, 
writes in a personal letter: " I think one 
thing about the colored women's clubs is 
perhaps a little different from those of the 
white women — we are necessarily more 
practical. We are running sewing classes, 
cooking classes, plantation schools, carry- 
ing on reading-rooms, building up schools, 
and like objects." The report of the Tus- 
kegee Club, which numbers seventy-four, 
shows great activity along all lines for the 
general development of the club women 
themselves and in the help they render 
others. Its literary topics are fine and sug- 
gestive; its charity is well-directed; its in- 
stitutional work in sections where this is 



Social Conditions 165 

much needed is resultful; its religious and 
temperance instruction is given in the jail, 
the school, and in the mothers' meetings. 
The mothers' meeting is perhaps pro- 
ductive of more good than any other 
branch of the work, since it deals directly 
with the home life of which the mother is 
always the center, the chief influence for 
good or for bad. The talks and discus- 
sions handle the very practical subjects of 
cleanliness in house and person, proper 
food and its preparation, character of 
clothing, physical health, moral standards, 
thrift and well-directed economy, and the 
influence of the mother's life and teachings 
upon her children and their manners and 
appearance in public. 

More numerous than the women's clubs ffietlL^^"*"* 
are the mutual benefit societies, with 
many varying names and objects. These, 
properly conducted, are a great blessing, 
especially among the poor, day-laboring 
class, who are often without friends who 
can be of the least assistance in times of 
distress and sickness. They have also their 
social features, and through them furnish 
respectable entertainment and amusement 
to supplant much that would degrade. Be- 



1C3 The Upward Path 

sides these, there are many church soci- 
eties that have social features, and are in 
many ways beneficial both to the women 
composing them and to those who receive 
help from them. 

*^"'nS^I The Negroes, while forming about one 
eighth of the whole population of the 
United States in 1890, were responsible for 
nearly one fifth of the crime. According 
to the twelfth census, there were in the 
United States 57,310 prisoners; of these, 
25,019 were Negroes — a number three 
times as great in proportion to population 
as that of the native whites, and one and a 
half times as great as that of the foreign- 
bom white. The figures also show that in 
proportion to the Negro population there 
are more criminal Negroes in the North 
than in the South, eight tenths of them be- 
ing in the South, where nine tenths of the 
Negroes dwell. This may be explained by 
the fact that those in the North live almost 
entirely in the cities, while in the South 
the vast majority are in the rural districts. 
In both races the criminality of the city 
far exceeds that of the country. 

chararter^f Of the Ncgro prisoucrs in the State peni- 
tentiaries, city or county jails, and work- 



Social Conditions 167 

houses or houses of correction, the men 
largely predominate. Half of them are be- 
tween the ages of twenty and thirty, and a 
fifth between the ages of ten and nineteen. 
The figures show a lower criminal age than 
among the whites, and the crime of most 
of these youthful offenders is stealing. If 
commitments were tabulated, undoubtedly 
pilfering would be found to be preemi- 
nently the Negro crime. One fourth of the 
Negro prisoners are confined for crimes 
against the person. This consists of fight- 
ing and quarreling, which end at times in 
homicide, and also the crime of rape. One 
sixth of the prisoners in jail are charged 
with crimes against society, such as 
gambling, drunkenness, adultery. 

No one can go into a Southern city or ^a^lJ^opHome 
town and fail to notice in certain sections Training 
the large number of idle, ragged, dirty Ne- 
groes, and every village and wayside rail- 
way station has its quota. These are in a 
large measure vagrants— though an occa- 
sional " job *' may save them from the 
vagrant law— and their only steady occu- 
pation is the game of '' crap-shooting." 
It does not take a very strong temptation 
to make one of this shiftless class a crim- 



168 The Upward Path 

inal. To feed such as these many an honest 
wife or mother wears her life out at the 
wash-tub, and to protect them from pun- 
ishment she would perjure her soul, or lay 
down her life. Yet without doubt many of 
them are what they are because of the evil 
influence and the lack of moral training in 
miserable homes, where the immoral lives 
of wife and mother are on the same plane 
as their own. 
Race Traits Broadlv Speaking, the same causes that 

Determine ^ x o? 

charac^er^f tcud to poverty, iguoraucc, and crime, in 
every land and among every people, are to 
be found among the Negroes, Closer ob- 
servation reveals certain race traits and 
inherited tendencies manifested in the 
character of crimes committed. The Ne- 
gro is emotional and is easily influenced to 
evil; his passions are strong and he lacks 
in self-control ; his judgment is poor and he 
does not quickly discern the logical se- 
quence of cause and effect; while immedi- 
ate gratification blinds him to the penal 
consequences of his act. Add to these igno- 
rance, drunkenness, resentment, or cupid- 
ity, and the criminal is accounted for— the 
homicide, the ravi slier, the thief. 

Judge W. H. Thomas, of Montgomery, 



Social Conditions ■ 169 

Alabama, says in his admirable treatise on crime committed 

' "^ _ while Angry 

Law and License: " It is noteworthy that 
the Negro in the South does not kill 
the white man, nor the white man the Ne- 
gro, as often as the Negro kills the Negro. 
. . . Unfortunately the Negro holds with 
too little regard the life of his colored 
neighbor when angered by him." In re- 
sponse to an inquiry made of the chaplain 
of the Tennessee penitentiary, he said: 
*' More than two thirds of the Negro pris- 
oners here were convicted for crimes com- 
mitted while angry." A great wrong is 
done the Negro by his enemies, his mis- 
taken white friends, and the ill-advised 
members of his own race, who by printed 
or spoken words play upon the emotions of 
the Negro so as to produce resentment, for 
that soon grows to hatred that may at any 
moment become violence. 

Strong drink and exciting drugs have an ^^^me '"*^"^®* 
even more fearful effect upon the Negro 
than upon the white race. When he is 
drunk, what little self-control he has 
learned from being forced to check his pas- 
sions is swept away, and he becomes a 
murderer or a lustful animal, regardless 
of consequences. Much, very much of the 



I 



170 The Upward Path 

Negro's worst criminality has been the 
result of whiskey or, worse still, of a hor- 
rid, adulterated gin especially prepared 
and labeled to excite his worst passions, 
''"(fa'useof Poverty walks a close companion of 
Much Crime ^j^jj^ie. Not ouly arc the large majority of 
all criminals poor, but poverty with its 
concomitants is the basal cause of the 
crimes of many. The poorest class in the 
South is largely composed of Negroes. 
The idle, unemployed class who will not 
work, or are unable to find work that they 
can do, become either loafing dependents 
on others of their race, or thieves. In the 
homes of poverty there are insanitary and 
immoral conditions affecting both the 
moral and physical life. There often the 
worst vices reign unchecked and unshamed, 
and many arrests result from riotous be- 
havior, brawls, and often murder. Chil- 
dren growing up in these homes and the 
streets and the alleys adjacent to them are 
corrupted in their infancy, and before they 
reach maturity they have been added to 
the criminal class. 

"cHmei ^^ ^^ ^^^ ^®^^ ^^ enter into any discussion 
of the heinous crime of rape, or its punish- 
ment. Only those who live at a distance 



Social Conditions 171 

and have never realized its daily and 
hourly terror can discuss it dispassionately. 
Only those whose lives have never touched 
a life so wrecked can calmly condemn the 
agonized fury of those who love the victim. 
It is only those who have heard and seen 
the violence of the mob who can truly de- 
plore it. 

There is a danger often overlooked in SSf^"** 
the administration of the law in the case '""''^'"y 
of the Negro — a certain indifference to 
crimes that relate solely to his own race 
and well-being and which, because they are 
condoned so often, are increasing to an 
; I arming extent. Chief among these are 
l)ioamy and marital infidelity. It might 
astonish some to know the prevalence of 
these evils, and yet how seldom prosecu- 
tion and punishment follows the offense— 
practically in no cases. The calmness with 
which the Negro, male and female, accepts 
this evil condition and the indifference 
with which it is regarded by the white peo- 
ple as ^' the Negro's way " is a shame 
to both races, and as long as it is allowed 
to continue will prove a destructive ele- 
ment in the home and social life. Too often 
the white man, from sentimental reasons 



172 The Upward Path 

largely based on the old-time relation of 
master and slave, stands between the law 
and a " good-for-naught " who is being 
tried for a minor offense, and " talks or 
pays him out of court," heedless of the 
fact that he will continue, possibly in- 
crease, in crime because of the ease with 
which he has escaped its consequences. 
Unjust If the miscarriage of iustice and un- 

Discrimmation ^ '' 

in Courts equal administration of the law existed in 
only one section of our country, or was 
directed toward only one race of people, 
the subject would be greatly simplified. If 
partial judges and juries and corruptible 
policemen were confined to that section 
and injured that one race, the rest of the 
world might well sit in judgment upon that 
unfortunate section. But this is not the 
case. From all over the country— nay, all 
over the world— comes the cry of the poor 
that there is unjust discrimination made 
in the courts between them and the rich. 
We have grown familiar with the phrases, 
*' The poor man has no chance with the 
rich when they go to law, " ' ' The rich man 
bribes himself free," " It is only the poor 
man who must hang," ^' The rich man 
pays his fine, the poor man must go to the 







aj = 



--^ 


M 


^^^^ V^^ '^^^^H^^^H 






^SHHpiV^Q^^' -" 



o 



o 
7J 



Social Conditions 173 

workhouse or the chain-gang. ' ' And again 
the alien complains that through his ig- 
norance, and often through the prejudice 
against him, he is unable to secure justice 
in the courts. Ignorance, poverty, help- 
lessness, each has its cry against the op- 
pression and injustice of the world. It is a 
cry that ascends unto heaven and will be 
heard. Justice perverted becomes retribu- 
tive, and no man or country can fail to re- 
ceive sooner or later the evil result of in- 
justice. Chancellor Hill, of the University 
of Georgia, of whom the whole South was 
proud, and for whose death the whole 
South grieved, said : ' ' The thing which the 
South cannot afford in its relation to the 
Negro race is injustice; all history teaches 
that injustice injures and deteriorates the 
individual or nation that practises it, while 
en the other hand, it develops and 
strengthens the race upon which it is in- 
flicted. '» 

There is no class of statistics more unre- |^Skf Not 
liable or more difficult to classify than obtainable 
those relating to birth, death, and disease. 
For this there are many contributory 
reasons; for example, imperfect registra- 
tion, and in some States, no registration of 



174 The Upward Path 

births, an unknown or concealed cause of 
death, no report of disease that has not 
resulted in death, and in some sections no 
ofiScial report of persons dying without the 
attendance of a physician. (This last is of 
frequent occurrence among the poor in 
rural districts.) These usual difficulties 
face one to a very large degree in consider- 
ing Negro statistics, owing to the fact that 
the large majority of them belong to the 
poor and ignorant class, from which such 
statistics are most difficult to obtain. 
^ExceSlI* White From comparing the number of children 
with the number of women of child-bearing 
age, it is seen that the Negro birth-rate 
exceeds and has always exceeded the white 
birth-rate. 
Def^"^?!: "r^® statistics as to insane and defective 
^"""i^f are very imperfect and relate only to those 
in institutions. From these we gather that 
in 1903 there were in continental United 
States 9,452 Negroes in hospitals and asy- 
lums. Nearly one third of these were in 
the North and West, a proportion far in 
excess of the relative Negro population. 
This may be offset, however, by the fact 
that much of the Negro population in the 
South is in rural districts, where the harm- 



Social Conditions 175 

less insane and defective are kept at home 
more generally than in the city. In 1900 
there were reported 8,228 blind and over 
5,000 deaf Negroes. 

The colored death-rate greatly exceeds 
the white. For every one thousand living 
colored children under one year of age 397 
died in the city and 219 in the country; 
under five years of age, 132 in the city and 
67 in the country. These figures tell a story 
of ' * the slaughter of the innocents. ' ' There 
is, however, a great improvement in infant 
mortality during the last decade. 

Di G. Stanley Hall, in his pamphlet, compos" uon of 
' ' The Negro in Africa and America, ' ' says : ^'*'°*' 
*' We find in compiling many medical 
studies of the blacks, that their diseases 
are very different from ours. Their lia- 
bility to consumption is estimated at from 
one and a half to three times greater than 
that of the whites. . . . Very striking is 
their immunity from malaria and yellow 
fever, which shows a different composition 
of the blood. . . . They have extraor- 
dinary power to survive both wounds and 
grave surgical operations. . . . Cancer 
of the worst kind is rare, as are stone in 
gall and bladder, and ovarian tumor. 



176 The Upward Path 

There is less insanity, but epilepsy is far 
more common. . . . They are naturally 
cheerful, therefore melancholia and suicide 
are rare. . . . General paralysis, or 
softening of the brain, said never to have 
occurred in slavery, is now sometimes 
found. Their diseases require modifica- 
tions of treatment, so that the training 
of physicians for the two races needs dif- 
ferentiation. ... Of course, mixture of 
blood brings approximation to pathologi- 
cal conditions." If this statement be true, 
and the weight of evidence is with the dis- 
tinguished writer, it loudly emphasizes the 
need of physicians who are especially 
trained for the treatment of the Negro, and 
for the peculiar training of the Negro 
physician. 
Poverty a^cause Thcrc are many causes for the high rate 
of mortality among the Negroes, and not 
the least of these are poverty and igno- 
rance. '' All observation goes to show that 
the cities are the hotbeds of crime, misery, 
and death among the colored people. They 
are huddled together, often with two or 
three families in one room. Without em- 
ployment for more than half the time, they 
are consequently insufficiently fed and 



Social Conditions 177 

poorly clothed. When sick, they are un- 
able either to employ a physician or to buy 
medicine. At least twenty-five per cent, 
of them die without medical aid. ' ' ^ 

Not only is poverty the cause of sickness [fa^J'/Z^p ^'**' 
and death, but so also is the ignorance that Mortality 
occasions neglect of sickness and preven- 
tion of contagious disease. Add to these 
his superstition and social customs, and 
one may sum up the main causes of the ex- 
cessive death-rate of the Negro. Poverty 
not only leads to the evils stated above, but 
compels residence in the most insanitary 
part of the city, where often the water-sup- 
ply is impure and the drainage bad. It 
prevents proper disinfection of houses or 
the separation of the sick from those in 
health. It compels the laboring man to 
work under all kinds of exposure and the 
laboring woman to leave uncared-for the 
sick in her family. Much of the effects of 
all this might be saved by intelligent pre- 
cautions and insistent and quickly applied 
remedies. The large number of still-births 
I is caused by the character of labor per- 
formed by the mothers and the ignorant 
midwives who attend them. Later the 

1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 1. 



178 The Upward Path 

babes die from the ignorance of the moth- 
ers in feeding and caring for them. The 
neglect of older children leads to much ex- 
posure to disease, physical and moral — a 
neglect that extends through life. 
Diseases Cause Jt may also be said that much poverty 
and suffering among the Negroes comes 
from disease that might be j^revented or 
controlled, or even cured, if they had more 
knowledge concerning the cause, dissemi- 
nation, and treatment of the diseases most 
prevalent among them. They cannot be 
convinced that fresh air or bathing are 
valuable in both sickness and health. They 
hold to the old fatalistic view of consump- 
tion and will take no precaution against 
its infection. Many will not voluntarily 
vaccinate themselves or their children, and 
they resist as far as possible compulsory 
vaccination, though free; consequently 
their settlements are frequently ravaged 
by smallpox and form centers of infection 
to the community at large, 
^"^pre'idl The Negro 's social nature, together with 
his deficiency in the logical faculty that 
reasons out future results from present 
acts, is also responsible in a large degree 
for the rapid spread of disease among 



Diseases 



Social Conditions 179 

them. They are constantly visiting each 
other and having all sorts of gather- 
ings from house to house; visiting the sick 
and attending funerals (no matter what 
the nature of the disease) are regarded as 
especially meritorious. Often the sick room 
is a scene of wild religious excitement, 
shared in by the patient and his friends, 
who will crowd around the bed regardless 
of contagion. 

The intelligent white physician often ^/'tv'hL''"'"'^ 
does a large charity practise among the Pi^y^'^^^^^ 
poor Negroes, though he has but little hope 
of his directions being followed. The in- 
telligent Negro physician is often unable 
to do much charity practise, and in many 
cases, being poor himself, refuses to attend 
cases where there is no hope of remunera- 
tion or success. 

But there is a species of '' quack doc- KeEe" 
tors," both white and black, who appeal to 
the Negro by promising for their nostrums 
immediate and wonderful effects, and some- 
how get paid ' ' cash down ' ' for their often 
injurious medicines. The universally ad- 
vertised and ignorantly recommended 
'' quack medicines " (especially those of a 
stimulating character) find ready accep- 



180 The Upward Path 

tance with the Negro. Without intelligent 
diagnosis of his disease, and governed by 
the most general symptoms, he will take 
bottle after bottle of medicines that injure 
his health, and to purchase them he will 
empty his jjurse of the money necessary 
to secure the means of health. Unfortu- 
nately this deplorable habit is not limited 
to the Negro. 
Witch-Doctors Thcro is still another enemy that the 
poor, ignorant Negro has to contend with 
and is least capable of resisting— the Ne- 
gro '^ witch-doctor," or '' conjurer," who 
still survives after all these years since 
leaving Africa, and nearly two generations 
of freedom. His practise of both " the 
white art "of healing and the" black art " 
of destruction continues to find a field in 
the fear and superstition of the lowest 
class of his race. If one of these medicine- 
men pronounces his patient " conjured " 
and prescribes the remedy— no matter how 
difficult, disgusting, or foolish — every ef- 
fort is made to carry out his orders as 
closely as possible, to '* break the spell " 
of the enemy that has caused the illness. 
Time, money, reputation, all are sacrificed 
to an amazing degree. So great is the ef- 



Social Conditions 181 

feet of the mind upon the body that a man 
or woman may, without any real ailment, 
pine away and die because he cannot find 
a witch strong enough to " break the 
spell," or rebound into sudden health if 
made to believe he has been released from 
the power of the enemy. A number of cases 
could be recited to show the prevalence of 
this pitiful superstition. Nor is a part of 
this fear of conjurers and their arts 
altogether groundless or imaginary, for 
some of their concoctions are very harm- 
ful, and their knowledge of subtle poisons, 
brought from Africa and handed down to 
descendants, is used in connection with 
their " charms " and fetiches to really 
cause incurable disease. 

In dealing with these witchcraft troubles V?affl N"g?o 
any white doctor is at a disadvantage, un- ^'^y*'"*"* 
less he has some peculiar hold upon the 
love and confidence of the Negroes, for it 
is a part of their superstition to keep such 
matters secret from white people. Any- 
thing he might say to discount the power 
of the fetich, or of the witch-doctor, 
would be regarded as an expression of 
prejudice against the black man, or be- 
cause, as a white man, he could not under- 



182 The Upward Path 

stand what belonged to the African. 
Therefore, it is all-important that there 
should be Negro physicians of fine mental 
and moral ability with special training to 
do medical work of a missionary character 
among them. They will feel that the black 
blood of such a man makes him one with 
them in sympathy and understanding. 
They will confide in him, and his unbelief 
in their superstitions will not offend them 
as with the white man. But it will be seen 
at a glance how necessary it is for such a 
Negro doctor to be not only sympathetic 
and scientific, but so deeply grounded in 
the things that be of God that his own mind 
and heart are unenthralled by supersti- 
tion and he has the power to lead his pa- 
tients into " the liberty of the children of 
God." 



SUGGESTED QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER V 

IAjm: To Realize the Present Social Condition of 
THE Negro and How Life May be Improved 

1. Describe the home life of a Negro in Africa. 

2. What would you miss most in his home life? 

3.* What are some of the things that make possi- 
ble your home life that the African does not 
have ? 



Social Conditions 183 

4. What are some of the incentives to better 
home life that come from ownership? 

5. Is it necessary to own a home to have efficient 
home life? 

6. What is essential to home life in addition to a 
good building and fine furnishings? 

7. Contrast a typical home among the poor Ne- 
groes with those among the poor of other races. 

8. How do the best homes among the Negroes com- 
pare with some of the good homes among the 
whites? 

9. Enumerate some of the chief temptations 
toward sociability among the Negroes? 

10. How do these effect the progress of the race? 

11. What are the conditions that produce class dis- 
tinction among the Negroes? 

12. What are the conditions that produce class dis- 
tinction among other races? 

13.* Do the circumstances that cause class distinc- 
tion differ among the various races? 

14. What benefits will accrue to the uplift of the 
Negro through the women's associations and 
other benevolent organizations? 

15. Among what classes of Negroes is the largest 
percentage of crime? 

16. What conditions in their history, to some ex- 
tent, account for the character of their crimes? 

17. Sum up the principal causes of crime among 
them to-day. 

18.* Give several suggestions that you believe would 

check criminality. 
19. What are the various causes that are seriously 

effecting the physical life of the Negroes? 
20.* What recommendation would you make in a 

community to improve the social, moral, and 

physical conditions? 



184 The Upward Path 

21.* What can you do to help the Negroes to im- 
prove their social life? 

Eefekences for Further Study. — Chapter V^ 

Social Conditions Among the Negroes.^ 

Baker: Following the Color Line, II, III, VI, 

IX. 

Baker: " The Negro in Southern City Life," 

American Magazine, March, '07. 

Baker : ' ' Negro Conditions in the Black Belt, ' ' 

American Magazine, July, '07; Aug., '07. 

Jones : " A Eaee in the Making, ' ' Westminster 

Beview, April, '07. 

Page: The Negro: The Southerner's Problem, 

IV. 

Stone: Studies in the American Eace Problem, 

Part V, Ch. I. 

Washington: "Negro Homes," Century Maga- 

sine, May, '08. 



1 Further references will be found in the home missionary 
magazines of tlie various denominations. 



EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES 



The right education of the Negro is at once a duty 
and a necessity. All the resources of the school should 
be exhausted in elevating his character, improving his 
condition, and increasing his capacity as a citizen. The 
policy of enforced ignorance is illogical, un-American, 
and unchristian. It is possible in a despotism, but peril- 
ous in a republic. It is indefensible on any grounds of 
social or political wisdom, and is not supported by any 
standards of ethics or justice. If one fact is more clearly 
demonstrated by the logic of history than another, it is 
that education is an indispensable condition of wealth 
and prosperity. . . . Ignorance is a cure for nothing. 
. . . Suppose we close the 30,000 Negro schools of the 
South, what would be the result? Let Dr. Curry tell us: 
* ' Ignorance more dense, pauperism more general and 
severe, crime, superstition, and immorality rampant. ' ' 
We could not survive such a policy. The boasted 
strength of our government institutions could not endure 
the strain. . . . 

I have been at not a little pains to ascertain from 
representatives of various institutions the postcollegiate 
history of their students, and I am profoundly gratified 
at the record. I believe it is perfectly safe to say that 
not a single case of criminal assault has ever been 
charged on a student of a mission school for Negroes 
founded and sustained by a great Christian denomina- 
tion. 

— Charles B. Galloivay 



VI 

EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES 

EDUCATION is not only a demand of EssSaun a 
civilization, but it is a part of the '^^*'°" 
very foundation upon which it rests, and 
no nation has risen to its highest place 
that has left its people in ignorance. Illit- 
eracy may be the misfortune of the indi- 
vidual, but the country that is content to 
allow illiteracy to prevail within its bounds 
when it may be removed proclaims its 
shame to the world and prepares for its 
own degeneracy in the future. Thus the 
schoolhouse becomes the pivot upon which 
a nation 's fate revolves, and upon its char- 
acter depends the advancement and pros- 
perity of that nation. '' Knowledge is 
power " for good or evil according to its 
character and direction, but ignorance 
means weakness for good and strength for 
evil. It helps nothing, it hinders every- 
thing. 

The freedman's need of education was Freedman's Need 

of Education 

apparent, that he must have it to fit him 

187 



188 The Upward Path 

for the life before him was equally appar- 
ent. In the beginning many mistakes were 
made by those who sought to help him, 
caused by ignorance of his nature and 
needs, and overhaste to secure the appear- 
ance of education rather than real results. 
Not a few of these have been rectified, 
proving the value of failure as " a step- 
ping-stone to better things," and the Xe- 
gro has already gained tremendously 
from the educational advantages furnished 
him by Church and State. 
wnmt* fo" Lifi This is not to say that the race has gone 
very far in education; indeed, it has but 
just started to climb the hill of learning. 
It signifies much that it has started, and 
will mean still more if, gaining a clearer 
and ever clearer view of the height beyond, 
it continues to toil upward and onward, 
choosing the best way and the best things 
and wisely rejecting that which experience 
teaches is not worth while. The gain that 
will come to the Negro in exchanging igno- 
rance for knowledge will be a gain to the 
nation as well, and especially to those sec- 
tions where he dwells in largest numbers. 
This does not mean that every man or 
woman that has '' a smattering " of educa- 



Educational Opportunities 189 

tion, or makes a conceited claim to being 
educated simply because he has been in a 
school, is benefited or will prove a benefit 
to anybody. Such as these have done much 
harm in discounting the value of education 
to the race, and awakening prejudice 
against it in the minds of many who should 
have known how to discriminate between 
the true and the false. Nor does it mean 
that every member of the race is capable 
of receiving the higher forms of education, 
or is bettered by an attempt to impose 
them upon him. What it does mean is that 
every man, woman, and child, black as well 
as white, should have an opportunity to 
gain the kind and measure of education 
that will be best fitted to meet the demands 
of individual and race life. 

That such education should be Christian chdst/an Negro 
is only to say that it should be true educa- >">p^«»"«" 
tion, which informs, develops, and inspires 
man's whole nature, spiritual as well as 
mental. The industrious, educated Chris- 
tian Negro is to-day no problem and, as his 
kind increases, will prove a blessing to the 
country. The larger the number of Ne- 
groes who remain ignorant, and often 
through ignorance are vicious, the greater 



190 The Upward Path 

the curse the race will become to itself and 
to others. 
schooK North Only about five per cent, of the Negroes 
in 1860 could read and write. Of this 
I number a minority were among the slaves ; 
I the majority were " free persons of 
! color." The former learned what they 
knew from their owners. The first Negro 
school, or at least among the first, in the 
North was established in New York by 
1 Elias Neau in 1704. This was principally 
) for religious instruction, though other sub- 
jects were taught, and was supported by 
the Society for the Propagation of the Gos- 
r pel in Foreign Parts. The Quakers of 
Philadelphia opened in 1770 a school for 
Negroes which exists to-day. In Massachu- 
setts there was a school supported by Ne- 
groes opened in 1798. In 1820 the Negroes 
of Cincinnati opened a school, and other 
schools were started elsewhere. These 
schools had a struggling life and many of 
them passed out of existence. " From 
about 1835 it became general in the North- 
ern States to have separate schools for the 
Negroes. They were usuallypoorer than the 
\ schools for whites, worse taught and worse 
equipped, and wretchedly housed. Begin- 



Educational Opportunities 191 

/ning with Massachusetts, in 1855, these 
separate schools have been abolished in 
nearly all Northern States. ' ' ^ 

v^ Some few schools for the Negroes ghooK'south 
existed here and there through the South 
before the war. The first was ojDened in 
Charleston, South Carolina, in 1774, by 
the Society for the Propagation of the Gos- 
pel in Foreign Parts. " It flourished 
greatly and seemed to answer their utmost 
needs." In the District of Columbia no 
less than fifteen schools were conducted, 
mainly at the expense of the colored 
people, between 1800 and 1861. In Savan- 
nah a French Negro from San Domingo 
conducted a free Negro school — openly 
from 1819 to 1829 and secretly for some 
time after. In Maryland, St. Francis 
Academy for colored girls was founded 
by the Eoman Catholics in 1829. The sis- 
ters were colored. In North Carolina 
there were several schools. 

While the war was yet in progress there ffing^w^" 
were '' army schools " opened for the 
benefit of the refugee Negroes who flocked 
from the plantations within the bounds of 
the Federal army. They were principally 

X 1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 6. 



i 

I 
f 



192 The Upward Path 

in Virginia and the Carolinas along the 
sea-coast, and in the Mississippi river 
towns. These were sustained then, and 
later, by Northern benevolence and by the 
nse and sale of the confiscated property of 
the Southern whites.^ In 1866 when the 
Freedmen's Bureau went into effect there 
were 740 of these " army schools," taught 
I by 1,314 teachers, with 90,589 pupils. The 
pupils ranged in age from wee toddlers to 
gray heads. The desire to be educated 
was almost a craze, yet few appreciated 
the time and effort involved in the process. 
Some of the older pupils, discouraged at 
seeing themselves outstripped by little 
children, abandoned the schools themselves 
but urged their children and grandchildren 
to attend. Others by extraordinary pa- 
tience and industry attained their desire 
X. to read the Bible. 
schooi|^under Whcu the Frecdmeu's Bureau came it 
Bureau ^qq[^ jj^ jjaud the schools for freedmen al- 
ready established and improved them. 
They were largely increased in number 
and efficiency, and at the close of its four 
years of work (1870), General Howard re- 
ported 2,677 schools, with 3,300 teachers 

1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 6. 




Napiek I'L'iiLic School, Nashville, Tennessee 




Jubilee Hall, Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee 



Educational Opportunities 193 

and 149,581 pupils, for which had been ex- 
pended $5,879,924. 

It has been stated that the South had no southern school 

aystem oeiore 

free school system before the war. In ^^ 
1860 the South had 27,582 public schools 
with 954,678 pupils, for which there was an 
annual expenditure by the States of 
$5,269,642. The legislative records show 
that North Carolina, South Carolina, and 
Virginia had well-organized systems of 
public schools as early as 1811. In fact 
the State system of free public schools 
originated in the South, and was in opera- 
tion nearly a half century before it was 
adopted by a member of the Northern 
States.^ 

That the South was without public I^SIh'lTschoois 
schools in 1865 was the result of the civil 
war, the most destructive to all interests 
of a people that the modern world has 
ever known. There was not only a lack of 
schools but of food and clothing among 
those best capable of supplying the educa- 
tional needs of the population, white and 
colored. While money was being lavished 
on schools for Negro children, white chil- 
dren lacked equal facilities. Under the cir- 

1 Dyer, Democracy in the South before the Civil War, 66-75. 



/ 



194 The Upward Path 

cumstances, it is not surprising that the 

first and best efforts of the white South 

were directed toward caring for its own. 

Money Expended Yct, betwceu the vears 1870 and 1905, the 

by South for ' -^ ' 

Negro Schools sixtccu Southem States expended for the 
Negro public schools more than $155,000,- 
000. In the year 1905-06, about $9,200,000 
more was expended. The enrolment of Ne- 
gro pupils in public schools is about one 
fourth as large as that of the white, and 
the Negro schools receive about one fifth 
of the State school funds, or one fifth as 
much as the white schools receive. For 
many years the direct school tax was al- 
most entirely paid by the white property 
owners. As the Negroes gain property, 
they pay an ever-increasing amount of the 
direct as well as their part of the indirect 
tax. 

In addition to the amount expended by 
the Southern States for public schools, 
millions more have been given by the 
North for Church and private schools, 
principally for higher education. It would 
be difficult to calculate the total of the vast 
sums that have been devoted to Negro edu- 
cation by both North and South since 
emancipation. It would not be an over- 



Educational Opportunities 195 

estimate to place it at $250,000,000— a 
quarter of a billion ! 

CHARACTEE OF SCHOOLS 

From the Report of the Commissioner ^J^'o"schoois 
of Education for 1906, the following statis- 
tics are gathered as to Negro schools : 

1. Common schools. Teachers, 27,747; 
pupils enrolled, 1,617,998. 

2. Public high schools, 146; teachers, 
891 ; pupils, 45,037. 

3. Secondary and higher schools other 
than public, 127; teachers, 2,057; pupils, 
42,500. Of these 25,209 are elemen- 
tary pupils, 14,281 secondary, and 310 are 
college students. 

The majority of the institutions in the Types of schoo!= 
third group are maintained by Home Mis- 
sion Boards, white and colored. One home 
mission board alone has contributed over 
$4,000,000 to educational work among Ne- 
groes. Philanthropic associations and 
individuals have also contributed largely 
to their establishment and maintenance. 
Some of them were founded by the 
United States government through the 
Freedmen's Bureau, and some of them are 



196 The Upward Path 

State institutions. In 1905-6 the govern- 
ment contributed $265,640 toward eighteen 
of these schools. In all of them the tuition 
fees and board (though very small in 
some) make the Negroes themselves con- 
tributors to that extent to their support. 
Character and Thcso iustitutious are of ditf creut char- 

uraae 

acter and grade. Some of them have many 
departments. Forty-one are normal or 
have a normal course, with 4,574 students ; 
forty have an industrial department, with 
21,622 students, who are being trained to 
more or less proficiency in various lines of 
industry. Thirty-four are distinctively 
termed colleges or universities, but many 
of these have elementary grades. Twenty- 
one are professional schools, or have pro- 
fessional courses, with 1,907 students. The 
property of this class of schools is valued 
at $11,227,303, and they receive an annual 
income of $1,437,480. 
Kind and Tlio testimouv of many educators of the 

Number of j ^ 

Schools Needed Negro race, white and black, agree as to 
the kind and number of schools needed for 
the race. Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, of Atlanta 
University, cannot be accused of partiality 
in his opinion upon this subject when he 
says : ' ' From a careful consideration of 




St. Mark's Industrial School, Birmingham, Alabama 




Graduating Classes, Meharry Medical College, 
Nashville, Tennessee 



Educational Opportunities 197 

the facts and of such, testimony as has been 
given, the following propositions seem 
clear : 

1 i:: The great mass of the Negroes need 
lQ.QnivoiiQ)ri school and manual training. 
/ ^: There is a large and growing demand 
/ for industrial and technical training, and 
trade schools. 
^. There is a distinct demand for the 
higher training of persons selected for tal- 
ent and character to be leaders of thought 
and missionaries of culture among the 
masses. 

/4f To supply this demand for a higher 
training there ought to be maintained sev- 
eral colleges in the South. 

.Sf The aim of these colleges should be 
to supply thoroughly trained teachers, 
preachers, professional men, and captains 
of industry. ' ' ^ 

For two important reasons the primary pJ-S^lJr&hoois 
school should be emphasized as of greater 
value to the race than those of higher 
grade, and larger efforts should be made to 
increase their number and efficiency: 

1. It is the opinion of scientists and edu- 
cators of long experience that the Negro 

1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 5. 

\ 



198 The Upward Path 

child, even more than the white child, j 
learns more quickly than one later in life, 
and it is well known that lessons in moral- 
ity and religion make a deeper impression 
in early youth. 

2. The chief reason is that the large ma- 
jority of Negroes are of the poorer class 
who will never go beyond the primary 
school, and what is not learned there will 
j never be learned, and because these schools 
f will furnish the first stage in the sifting 
I process, the separating from the mass of 
I those who have the mental ability to make 
I it worth while to advance to the high 
\school. 
^^""^Bette? This emphasis may be given by having 
Equipment jj^ttcr school buildiugs and more of them 
in the city and the country. Larger build- 
ings with more classrooms are required. 
There should be more teachers, with 
smaller classes. There should be longer 
school terms. There should be a demand 
for better equipped, more intelligent 
teachers, who have had such normal train- 
ing as will especially fit them to understand 
and train the children of their own race. 
Need of Manual Of prime importaucc is the need of man- 
ual training in the common schools, includ- 



Educational Opportunities 199 

ing for girls practical instruction in do- 
mestic science. The earlier in a child's life 
the muscles of the hands and fingers are 
trained to respond to the will, the more 
surely does skilled labor become possible 
in the later years. The value and dignity 
of manual labor is more wisely impressed 
upon the child by showing him how to do 
such work than by much lecturing. The 
consciousness of doing good work makes of 
that work a pleasure and incites to an am- 
bitious effort that will save from future 
idleness. 

Of course the improvements indicated ReqSi?2d"^^ 
as needed in the common schools will re- 
quire far more money than is now to be 
had and a wiser expenditure than has yet 
been made, especially in the rural districts, 
and so the possibility of much improve- 
ment lies with the future. But it is well 
to keep this aim before us and steadily 
work toward it. 

A first step in that direction is the ^^1^1^^'"''' 
wise and generous gift of Miss Anna sc"h"ois" 
P. Jeanes of $1,000,000 for the use of 
the Negro rural public schools. This 
fund was placed in wise, experienced hands 
and will be wisely and intelligently admin- 



200 The Upward Path 

istered. So far the board of trustees has 
devoted its attention to the investigation 
of conditions. It plans to use the interest 
of this fund as far as possible in encour- 
aging Negroes to do more for their own 
schools, and at the same time to do every- 
thing possible to induce the local school au- 
thorities to do more from the present 
school funds for the Negro schools than is 
being done in many places. In other 
words, in the county where the teacher 
receives $20 a month, say, for a four 
months' school, the aim will be to get the 
colored people to raise sufficient money to 
add a month, or a month and a half, to 
the school term and the board of trustees 
of the Jeanes fund add as much more, pro- 
vided the school board will increase the sal- 
ary to, say, $25, and provided also that 
the teacher is deserving and intelligent. 
A part of the plan is the elimination as far 
as possible of all teachers who are not de- 
serving and qualified for the work. The 
board regards the outlook at present as 
hopeful. May we not hope that other rich 
women and men will see the wisdom of 
largely increasing this fund, and may we 
not also hope that wise Christian men and 



Teachers 



Educational Opportunities 201 

women living in localities where this fund 
is to be used will aid in every way possible 
the full execution of the board's plans? 
In no way can Negro education be better 
advanced than by improving the rural pub- 
lic schools. The great mass of the people 
live in the country, where there is more 
ignorance and where there are at present 
the poorest school advantages. 

The value of the normal school to the S'TValli^*"'****'^ 
common and high schools is beyond compu- 
tation. One may know much and yet be a 
j:oor teacher until he has been taught how 
to impart his knowledge. Especially is 
this true of those who would teach children, 
or any who are undeveloped mentally. 
Through these schools many teachers have 
been prepared who are doing good work 
to-day, and it is to be regretted that so 
many other teachers have not had the ad- 
vantage of normal training. But many of 
them must be fitted for a still broader and 
more thorough work if they would fulfil 
their whole mission. The course of study 
should include methods suited to the Negro 
child, in order to secure the right develop- 
ment of his natural powers, giving proper 
consideration to heredity and environment. 



202 The Upward Path 

This necessarily involves a practical 
knowledge by the normal teacher of the 
race and its present conditions. If indus- 
trial features are ever to be introduced 
into the primary and secondary schools, 
the normal schools must prepare the way 
for them by giving to their future teachers 
practical courses in the industrial branches 
that may be taught in the lower schools. 
The fact that all public schools for Negroes 
in the South are taught exclusively by Ne- 
groes adds a strong argument for the 
maintenance of Negro normal schools of 
the highest degree of efficiency. 
sKfriai Regarding Hampton and Tuskegee In- 
stitutes as models of the kind of industrial 
schools the Negro needs, too much cannot 
be said as to their value both for the pres- 
ent and the future development of the race. 
The latter institution is an outgrowth of 
the former in that Hampton trained and 
gave to Tuskegee its distinguished prin- 
cipal, a man who has proved himself to be 
the greatest representative of his race. 
The history of these great schools is too 
well known to need to be reproduced here. 
The results of their work are already 
manifest, not only in the industrial life of 



Schools 



Educational Opportunities 203 

the colored people that have come under 
their influence, but in their mental attitude 
toward life and its best aims, in a new 
view of the dignity of honest work and 
the nobility of good work. 

That a man or woman has earned his or ffSpf 
her education adds tenfold to its value as seif=Respect 
a life force, and if in the earning of it he 
has prepared himself to take up a trade 
or line of business that will enable him to 
gain a living for himself and his family, 
more than half of life's battle has been 
fought. For every one such there is a 
place waiting in this world in which he will 
be respected and self-respecting, no matter 
what his race or color. 
|l There are a large number of Negroes not f*hoois"NeIded' 
able either mentally or financially to get 
a real college education, to whom such 
schools are a great and special providence. 
There should be at least two other large 
industrial institutions, one in Texas or the 
Southwest and one in the Southeast, and 
their greatest work should consist in train- 
ing men and women who can in turn train 
industrially the great mass of the people in 
private secondary schools and in the pub- 
lic schools of city and country. It is there, 



204 The Upward Path 

too, that the leaders of great industrial 
enterprises must be trained for the future 
and its needs. 

Trade Schools As a further development of the indus- 
trial school must come the distinctive trade 
school that is already in demand for both 
races. Hampton and Tuskegee are making 
a near approach to this ; and they are do- 
ing much to create a demand for them and 
are preparing their future instructors. 
TrIrninJ'for The womau side of industrial education 
is replete with meaning both for herself 
and the race. If made truly valuable by 
being both skilful and practical, it will 
mean moral as well as physical better- 
ment for herself, her home, and her fam- 
ily. If she should be a bread-winner it will 
insure for her remunerative employment. 

Hon'^e'sflabor ^ot uutil wc appreciate the dignity of 
labor, and learn that every kind of labor 
that supplies a need or looks to the ad- 
vancement of humanity is equally honor- 
able, will we accept the fact that every man 
owes it to himself and his fellows to devote 
himself to that kind of work for which by 
nature he is best fitted. That only is honest 
labor which is the best a man can do. He 
only is an honest workman who does what 




Emory Halls for Boys, Tuskegee, Alabama 




Parker 



Cottage for Girls, Tuskegee, Alabama 



Educational Opportunities 205 

he can do best. Impress these ideas upon 
the childhood and youth of to-day, and the 
effect will be seen in the men and women 
of the future, not only in the increased 
industry of the race but in a wiser 
selection of employment. Ambition means 
effort to become that which is desired, 
and if it appears just as desirable to 
be a skilled mechanic, or agriculturist, 
or railroad builder, as to be a professional 
man, then these occupations will cease to 
appear on a lower industrial plane than 
the professions, and, when they are valued 
as of importance to human life, efforts will 
be made to do good honest work in all of 
them. 

The college course is not to be graded FuSKed 
higher in practical value to the race than 
industrial training, but it does a work that 
the other cannot do, and supplies as great, 
though a different need. The college must 
be looked to to furnish thoroughly edu- 
cated men and women for teachers in all 
the lower schools, if these elementary insti- 
tutions are to be productive of the best re- 
sults. From thence must come the trained 
men who are to make skilful physicians 
and surgeons, clear-thinking lawyers, and 



206 The Upward Path 

preachers from whose minds have been 
broken the shackles of ignorance and su- 
perstition. These are all a felt need of 
the race and its future evolution depends 
largely on their character and work. To 
deny or withhold such preparation from 
the natural leaders of the race would be to 
dwarf its powers and make it a still 
greater problem to the nation as its num- 
bers increase. John E. Mott says : ' ' The 
universities and colleges teach the teachers, 
preach to the preachers, and govern the 
governors. They are the strategic points 
in civilization. As go these institutions of 
higher learning, so go the nations. ' ' 
Fewer but, Be«er Some chaugcs should bc made in this 
class of schools. Dr. DuBois asserts that, 
out of the thirty-four Negro colleges exist- 
ing in the South in 1900, only about ten 
were needed to accommodate the pupils 
that should continue a college course, and 
then leave large room for growth. He sug- 
gests that twenty-two of the smaller insti- 
tutions leave off their college departments 
and develop into normal or industrial 
schools, allowing the college work to be 
concentrated in the ten large institutions. 
This would secure better equipment, create 



Educational Opportunities 207 
a higher standard, and save much criti- 



1 



cism. 

Following the college, come the profes- ^,'Sooif "" 
sional schools. The number of these could 
not definitely be learned, but their nearly 
three thousand students and graduates tell 
of the work that is being done. In every 
city and in many towns throughout the 
South these men are to be found in the 
court-houses, the pulpits, and the sick 
rooms, each in his place and each accord- 
ing to his ability helping to fulfil and guide 
the destiny of his people. 

Dr. G. W. Hubbard, Dean of the Ma- K^Nelro 
harry Medical College, Nashville, Tennes- p*'^^'"^"^ 
see, says, in the Southern Workman: 
' ' There is an urgent need of an increased 
number of Christian Negro physicians in 
the South. In addition to their work of 
ministering to the sick, their services 
would be of incalculable value in giving 
their people instruction in the observance 
of the laws of health and in providing com- 
fortable homes for themselves. They 
would also be able to teach them by pre- 
cept and example to lead pure, noble, and 
upright Christian lives. ... The great 

1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 5. 



208 The Upward Path 

proportion of the graduate Negro physi- 
cians are located in the large cities and 
towns, few being found in the country dis- 
tricts. . . . The relations that have 
existed between the white and the colored 
physicians of the South have been most 
commendable. The colored have been 
treated mth courtesy and respect by the 
white medical profession. They have been 
given all needed assistance in serious 
cases and difficult surgical operations. 
There is less friction between the races in 
the practise of medicine than in any other 
part of industrial or professional ac- 
tivity." 
unSiS "^^ ^ climax to Negro education it has 
been wisely suggested that a great central 
university should be established in one of 
our large cities, where there would be am- 
ple opportunity for the students, while ac- 
quiring the necessary theoretical instruc- 
tion, to study actual conditions among the 
masses, as well as among the best class 
of Negroes. Washington City or Baltimore 
or Atlanta would be a favorable location. 
It should be a kind of educational labora- 
tory, a university of practi<^al investiga- 
tion for all lines of life. 



Educational Opportunities 209 

The requirements for entrance should be f^r^AdrnTslFon 
maturity, intelligence, education, morality, ^"^ ^°^** 
and a consecrated zeal that leads the stu- 
dent to devote his life to the elevation of 
his people. These students should, as far 
as it is possible to human nature, banish 
all race prejudice and sensitiveness from 
their minds and make an honest study of 
the race life of the Negro and its traits and 
characteristics from the standpoints of an- 
thropology and psychology. They should 
also acquaint themselves with the history 
and development of the race since its com- 
ing into America, weighing fairly and im- 
partially all contrary statements and opin- 
ions. They should not content themselves 
with printed accounts of present conditions 
in the city and in the country, but make 
first-hand investigations and close personal 
study of the different phases of life. They 
should know of the demoralizing social 
evils, and devastating diseases, the mock- 
ery of religion in some of the churches, and 
the gross practises among some of the 
clergy. They should also know how, out 
of and over all these hindrances, many 
members of the race have come victorious 
to a high plane of life; and, with this 



210 The Upward Path 

knowledge, they should take heart and 
hope to fight the evils that are tending 
toward the destruction of the great igno- 
rant mass. 
^""^ Adap^ted^to ^^^ Negro, out of his subjective con- 
Train His Race gciousncss, kiiows that which pertaius to 
his own race — knows it as it is difficult, 
yea, well-nigh impossible for the Cau- 
casian race to know it — and men so trained 
should be far more capable of training the 
Negro brain, of meeting the needs of his 
physical life, and of responding to his spir- 
itual nature than the white man, be he ever 
so wise and sympathetic. That there are 
Negro men capable of receiving and nobly 
using such training has been abundantly 
proved. 
Differences.^o^be j^ ^uy training of the Negro mind, con- 
sideration should be given to the different 
racial elements that inhere in the whole 
race; and to the natural endowment, the 
history, and the environment that differen- 
tiate the Negro race from the Caucasian. 
^'''"'oroSpl The American Negroes when closely in- 
vestigated and studied are found to form 
four racial groups. (1) The true Negro, of 
whom there are several types — Guinea 
Coast, Hottentot, and Bushman — consti- 



Educational Opportunities 211 

tute the majority of those in the South. 
These types have distinctive characteris- 
tics, and vary in mental ability and possi- 
bilities of elevation. (2) The Hamitic Ne- 
gro — Bantu, Zulu, and Kaffir — is found in 
fewer numbers throughout the whole coun- 
try, but most frequently in Virginia and 
the Carolinas. (3) The Semitic Negro — 
Sudanese and Dahomian — is found in 
smaller numbers than any other class. (4) 
The Caucasian Negro — mulattoes, quad- 
roons, and octoroons — are found in in- 
creasing numbers throughout the whole 
country, but predominant in proportion to 
their numbers in the North. 

Many Hamitic, Semitic, and Caucasian KeenHamitic 
Negroes have fine minds and naturally be- ^""^ ^^'"'"'' 
come the leaders of their people. The 
Hamitic Negro is warlike and dominant in 
Africa and also in America among his own 
people. The Semitic Negro has a gentle, 
placid nature and is especially adapted to 
domestic life. 

The Caucasian Negro is of too recent JJ^'^^^gSclsian 
origin to get the necessary perspective for Negroes 
a fair estimate of race type, but many in- 
dividuals of this class indicate great pos- 
sibilities. This last group may be divided 



212 The Upward Path 

into three classes, not as to the relative 
amount of white and black blood or as to 
color, but as to certain marked characteris- 
tics. First, there is the large, muscular 
type with the Negro features magnified, 
who is self-assertive and loud-voiced. The 
second type resembles the first, but is in- 
ferior to it physically and mentally. These 
two classes often combine the worst traits 
of both races and form the most dangerous 
elements of the Negro population. The 
third type more nearly resembles the Cau- 
casian physically and mentally and in in- 
clinations, and some have minds capable 
of the highest culture.^ 
Modifkations Of coursc all these groups have been 
modified by frequent admixture among 
themselves, thus blending their different 
characteristics, and here and there may be 
found one or more of an entirely different 
type from any here mentioned. Yet taken 
as a whole, these four groups are so 
marked and diverse, not only in their char- 
acteristics but in their possibilities, that it 
would be manifestly unfair to demand the 
same treatment, training, and education 
for all Negroes under all circumstances. 

1 Bean, Century Magazine, September, 1906. 




Typical Group op Students 




Physical Laboratory 



Educational Opportunities 213 

If this is true, how much more unjust to 
do so for the still more widely divergent 
white and black races in their different 
stages of development. 

Not only in solving the political and so- ^fpTe^Must 
eial Negro problem, but in educating and Be considered 
Christianizing him there are fundamental 
principles that should be considered and 
established in order to secure a reasonable 
basis upon which to build and proceed to 
success. This will require a careful study 
of the different races that are involved. 

This is not the place to present the di- Kd'''^" 
vergent views of scientists as to certain 
racial mental differences. That must be 
left to students of anthropology, and psy- 
chology, whose investigations have not 
yet reached undoubted conclusions. The 
day may come when out of their honest, pa- 
tient investigations there will be evolved 
assured facts relating to the mind and 
spirit that will enable those who follow 
after them to labor more wisely for man's 
advancement and God's glory. 

In dealing with or passing judgment Ke^Sment 
upon any race, due consideration must be 
given to the history and status of that race 
in the life of humanity. It is in accord 



214 The Upward Path 

with the laws of evolution to recognize the 
Negro as " a child race," that must pro- 
ceed as all races have done through the 
processes of development to its highest 
and best. No race has risen as a whole 
with a sudden bound from one step in its 
evolution to another. There has always 
been first, individuals, then groups, that 
have appeared above the level of the mass 
and by their efforts, alone or aided, accord- 
ing to circumstances, have helped to lift 
up those on the lower plane. " Rome was 
not built in a day " ; far less the peoples 
that formed the great Roman Empire. 
Adva"ncemen{ Lookiug back ouly a few generations to 
without Parallel the African savage and less than fifty 
years to the slave, we see remarkable prog- 
ress in the mental evolution of the Ameri- 
can Negro. To expect that the whole race 
in so short a period of time would reach 
the highest level of civilization and of 
mental and moral development would be 
to demand of it a miracle such as no other 
race in the world has performed. Yet 
when we note such facts as that the lit- 
eracy of the race has risen from five to 
about sixty per cent, in less than fifty 
years, we claim that such an educational 



Educational Opportunities 215 

advancement is without parallel in a race, 
and it appears still more remarkable when 
we find a growing class of its men and 
women entering the higher ranks of edu- 
cators and professional workers. With 
such facts before us we are ready to say 
that which God has begun to work out for 
the race and through the race for the world 
shall be accomplished. There is no cause 
for discouragement, when we look back- 
ward; and there is every reason to hope, 
when we look forward with the patience of 
faith. 



SUGGESTED QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VI 

Aim: To Realize the Educational Achievements 
AND Needs for Further Efforts Among the Ne- 
groes. 
1. Why is education fundamental to the best life 

of a nation? 
2.* What should be the chief aims of education? 
3. Can you give any reasons why the ignorant 

among any race should not be educated? 
4.* What does a nation gain by educating its peo- 
ple? 
5,* What is the effect of ignorance upon the indus- 
trial and social life of the people? 

6. Why was the South not able to support schools 
among the Negroes immediately after the war? 

7. What were the motives that caused the Freed- 



216 The Upward Path 

men's Bureau to establish schools among the 
Negroes ? 

8. What is the extent of the public school sys- 
tem of education now supported by the South- 
ern States in behalf of the Negroes? 

9. What other agencies are assisting in 'the educa- 
tion of the Negro? 

10.* Do you believe the Negro has improved in edu- 
■n* wi'"""^^ opportunities thus far? Give reasons, 
il. What IS the comparative need and value of 

industrial and professional schools? 
12. Is it just to use the same method of education 

among Negroes as among whites? 

What type of schools should immediately be 

strengthened and why? 

How much financial support can reasonably be 

expected from the Negroes? 
15. Where and from what class must the educa- 
tional leaders be secured, and why? 

State in the order of importance the greatest 

educational needs among the Negroes. 

Where can the money be secured to carry out 
these plans? 



13 

14, 



16. 
17. 



Refere.vces for Further Stttdt.— Chapter VI 
Negro Education.^ 

Bratton: " The Christian South and the Edu- 
cation of the Negro," Sewanee Review, July 
'08. •" 

1 For articles on the education of the Negro in mission schools 

consulted Other material on the question of education will be 
found in the United States Census and Bureau of Educatirn the 

refer^nc^s ''""" '^"^ ''' ^""^^^"'^"^ ^^^-^^ *^ ^^ the pTevio^s 



Educational Opportunities 217 

DuBois: The Souls of the Black Folk, VI. 
Gordon: " Manual Training for Negro Chil- 
dren, Charities, Oct. 7, '05. 
Miller: Eace Adjustment, 244-274. 
Murphy: Problems of the Present South, II. 
Percy: " A Southern View of the Education of 
the Negro," Outlook, Aug. 3, '07. 
Price, The Negro, XXII. 
Shannon: Kacial Integrity, IV. 
"Washington: " Education of the Man Behind 
the Plow," Independent, April 23, '08. 
Washington: Up From Slavery, XI. 
Washington: Working With the Hands, IV, 
XIX. 



RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT 



The slave had found in Christianity, often in rude, 
half-barbaric forms, a consolation, a refuge, a tender- 
ness and hope, to which we can scarcely do justice. Per- 
haps its most eloquent expression to our imagination is 
those wonderful old-time melodies, the Negro ' ' spirit- 
uals, ' ' as they have been made familiar by the singers 
of the Negro colleges. Their words are mystic. Scrip- 
tural, grotesque ; the melodies have a pathos, a charm, 
a moving power, born out of the heart 's depths through 
centuries of sorrow dimly lighted by glimmerings of a 
divine love and hope. The typical African temperament, 
the tragedy of bondage, the tenderness and triumph of 
religion, find voice in those psalms. 

— George S. Merriam 

To every man among them with the evident qualities 
of leadership we should lend our Christian sympathy and 
a helping hand. President Tucker, of Dartmouth Col- 
lege, was entirely correct when he said : " I believe with 
a growing conviction that the salvation of the Negro 
in this country lies with the exceptional men of that 
race. ' ' And those who have studied the philosophy of 
Christian missions and the progress of civilization will 
tell you that the same is true r^_ all the peoples of the 
earth. We train and Christianize the exceptional men 
who are to be the real redeemers of their race, whether 
in China, Japan, India, or Africa. 

— Charles B. GaUoway 

The various missionary socities . . . have done a 
work which, in a large degree, has been the salvation of 
the South; and the result will appear in future genera- 
tions more than in this. 

— BooTcer T. Washington 



vn 

RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT 

THERE is no phase in the history of the gevdop^ent 
Negro's progress more striking and 
remarkable than that of his religious de- 
velopment. This would become convinc- 
ingly apparent to the most skeptical could 
they be transported to Africa and view the 
weird incantations of the savage fetich 
worshiper, and returning enter a Negro 
church where a congregation of earnest 
Christians listen intelligently to the 
preaching of the gospel by an educated 
minister, and such churches can be found 
in hundreds of communities. 

In his other dealings with the race God ^rlce 
may have moved " in a mysterious way 
his wonders to perform, ' ' but his presence 
and grace are clearly manifest in the work 
of the Holy Spirit in these transformed 
lives. This has been done in accordance 
with his own divine plan for the redemp- 
tion of the world — by the testimony of liv- 
ing witnesses, as, in obedience to his com- 



Result of God's 



222 The Upward Path 

mand, they preached the gospel to ' ' every 
creature ! ' ' 

"^^^"'Among the ^^ study of the American Negro could 
Slaves \)Q complete without a narrative of how 
this great change has been effected. Some 
general statements have been given in 
Chapter II, showing the many and varied 
difficulties that for a time seemed almost 
insurmountable to those who sought to 
evangelize the Negro slaves. The results 
of their efforts were seen in 1860, when 
nearly one-half of the 4,000,000 Negroes 
congregated in the South were either en- 
rolled members of the Church, or under di- 
rect Christian influence and instruction. 
This story has been told in interesting de- 
tail by the Rev. C. C. Jones of Savannah, 
Georgia, in his book, The Religious In- 
struction of the Negroes of the United 
States, published in 1842 ; and in The Gos- 
pel among the Slaves, by Harrison and 
Barnes, which takes up Dr. Jones' account 
and carries the narrative down to 1865. 
From these two authentic sources the fol- 
lowing statements are drawn. 

^*'"^h!'sode?y The first organized effort to give gospel 

propagauon of instructlou to the Negroes in the American 

ForeSf plr'is colouics was madc in 1701 by the Society 



Eeligious Development 223 

for the Propagation of the Gospel in For- 
eign Parts incorporated under William 
III. The first missionary, the Eev. 
Samuel Thomas, began work in South 
Carolina, where he and his successors met 
with ' ' the ready good- will of the masters, 
though much discouragement was felt be- 
cause of the difficulties of the task, not 
many of the Negroes understanding the 
English tongue." The zeal of the society 
and its missionaries increased, and in less 
than forty years the report was made of 
a " great multitude of Indians and Ne- 
groes brought over to the Christian faith " 
in different parts of the country, and later 
of a flourishing school at Charleston send- 
ing out annually about twenty young Ne- 
groes well instructed in English and the 
Christian faith. 

After the separation of the colonies from K^tesunt' ""^ 
the mother country the Protestant Epis- Episcopal church 
copal Church took up the work of the Eng- 
lish society with increased interest and 
zeal, and in 1841 it reported in South Caro- 
lina alone 869 colored members in twenty- 
two churches, and fifteen Sunday-schools 
with 1,459 pupils, and also two plantation 
missions with congregations of 1,400 Ne- 



224 The Upward Path 

groes. In Virginia a similar work was 
being done by the same methods. 
Presbyterians ^ dircct effort for the religious instruc- 
tion of the Negroes was begun by Presby- 
terians in 1747 at Hanover, Virginia, with 
immediate success. About 1,000 Negroes 
attended the ministry of the Rev. Samuel 
Davis, at different points, who were eager 
to hear and readily accepted the gospel. 
Other missions were established and many 
godly men devoted their time to the work 
among the slaves both in the towns and on 
the plantations. Sunday-schools were es- 
tablished and the Bible and catechism were 
taught. The greatest work of this Church 
was in printing and freely distributing 
sermons and books addressed to the own- 
ers, urging them to give religious instruc- 
tion to their servants. Their sjmods and 
Presbyteries adopted resolutions impress- 
ing this duty upon the masters, while in- 
creased efforts to evangelize the Negro 
continued fruitful in results, until retarded 
by the abolition excitement in the free 
States between the years 1839 and 1842. 
Baptists As the result of sweeping revivals in the 
Baptist churches about 1785 and 1790, 
large numbers of Negroes were converted 



Eeligious Development 225 

and joined that Church. In 1793 its colored 
members numbered over 18,000 and twenty 
years later there were enrolled 40,000 
members and a number of preachers and 
exhorters who j^reached to thousands of 
their own color on the plantations. In 1841 
there were attached to this Church more 
Negro communicants and more regnilar 
houses of worship exclusively for Negroes 
with their own ordained preachers than to 
any other Church. Many Sunday-schools 
were reported, with large numbers of 
pupils. 

From the Rev. J. W. Jones of Richmond, ^fl^H^^lf 
Virginia, a leading Baptist divine and one ^^^^""^^ 
well versed in the history of his denomina- 
tion and of the South, the following infor- 
mation has been secured: ^' It was custo- 
mary for our white pastors to hold special 
services for the Negroes in all of their 
churches, and each church had a special 
committee on the religious instruction of 
the Negroes. Our home mission board also 
had special missionaries among them. As 
a result of this work, it was estimated that 
in 1860 there were 400,000 Negroes belong- 
ing to the white Baptist churches of the 
South. Many individual Christians were 



226 The Upward Path 

accustomed to have their Negroes attend 
their family worship and to give them spe- 
cial religious instruction besides. 

MiSCnar'*' ' ' ludced, uo missiouary work anywhere 
^^"''^Negroel ^^^^ heen so successful as the work of 
Southern Christians among these people, 
whom old England and New England 
brought as pagans, and in some cases as 
cannibals, to our shores. Such Negro 
Sunday-schools as Stonewall Jackson's in 
Lexington, Virginia, Prof. John B. 
Minor's at the University of Virginia, Dr. 
James P. Bryce's and H. A. Tuppin's in 
Charleston, South Carolina, and Dr. J. C. 
Furman's in Greenville, South Carolina 
(all men of note), were but specimens of 
the general work which the Southern white 
people did for the Negro people. ' ' 

In 1860 the number of Negro Bap- 
tists was estimated at 400,000, and count- 
ing three adherents to each of these bap- 
tized adults we have 1,200,000 Negroes 
under the instruction and influence of that 
Church. 

Methodists One of the first missionaries of Metho- 
dism in the United States (1766) reports 
successful work among the Negroes. In 
describing a Virginia revival in about 1770 



Religious Development 227 

he says, " Hundreds of Negroes were 
there with tears streaming down their 
faces ... as they expressed their love 
for Jesus. ' ' In 1797 there were 12,215 col- 
ored members and in less than twenty 
years later there were nearly four times 
that number. The objections made at first 
by slave-owners to these efforts to Chris- 
tianize the Negroes passed away, as they 
witnessed the effect of the gospel upon 
them, and the preachers were encouraged 
and aided in their labors, especially in the 
plantation missions, until suspicion of 
their motives was aroused by the anti- 
slavery movement in this Church. Later, 
this being removed, the work again pros- 
pered. In 1861 the colored membership of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
was 207,776. Counting three adherents to 
each enrolled member, we have 623,328 Ne- 
gro slaves under the instruction of this 
Church. During the thirty-four years of 
its slave mission period the Methodist 
Episcopal Church paid out upward of 
$2,000,000 for Christianizing the Negro 
slaves. 

In the year 1864, when every resource ^Si^^^Ne'fo'es"' 
was well-nigh exhausted, the white Chris- 



228 The Upward Path 

tians of the South gave for the religious 
instruction of the Negroes a sum that 
would closely approximate $250,000. This 
great work was accomplished largely by 
the direct preaching of the gospel, aided 
by much personal work of missionaries and 
Christian owners, and also by careful in- 
struction in the Bible and catechism. It 
was usual in the towns for both races to 
be members of the same congregation, to 
worship in the same house (separate sit- 
tings being provided for the colored mem- 
bers), and to receive the sacrament from 
the same altar. In some instances sepa- 
rate churches were built for them, where 
they were preached to by white pastors or 
an approved colored minister. 
^'.Miitfons The necessity for a different provision 
Organized ^^^ evaugeliziug the large masses of the 
Negroes who were on the plantations be- 
came apparent as early as 1821, and 
'' plantation missions " were organized to 
meet the needs, first by the Methodists in 
South Carolina and afterward in other 
sections and by other churches. Place is 
given here for a description of that work 
from an address by the Eev. L. F. Beaty, 
before the historical society of the South 



Eeligious Development 229 

Carolina Conference, because wliat he says 
is applicable to the same class of work 
done all through the Southern States and 
by other churches. 

' ' It was found that the regular ministry Attentf^ to 
did not reach the river deltas of the ' low {improvement 
country ' where on sugar, rice, and cotton *** ^^^^'^^ 
plantations were segregated large num- 
bers of Negroes who had but few advan- 
tages of civilization, and little knowledge 
of God and his Word. But the day of 
their deliverance was at hand. ... In 
1821 the Missionary Society of the South 
Carolina Conference was organized, and 
with it began an increased attention to the 
religious improvement of the blacks. Dr. 
Capers, afterward Bishop, was profoundly 
interested and through him appeals came 
to send regular missionaries to their slave 
plantations from the Hon. Chas. C. Pinck- 
ney, Col. Lewis Morris, and Mr. Chas. 
Baring — names written high in the annals 
of the State. These gentlemen and many 
others were ever after warm supporters 
of this cause, and by their strong personal 
influence contributed largely to its ulti- 
mate success. 

" Not only were these South Carolina 



200 The Upward Path 

pianfation planters interested in the salvation of their 

Missions General i^ 

slaves, but the Southern people as a whole 
demanded kind treatment and religious 
training in their behalf, as witness the 
later fact that a great statesman of Mis- 
sissippi, almost omnipotent in jDolitieal in- 
fluence, was hurled from place and power 
because he was regarded as unsound on 
the great issue, plantation preaching. . . . 
coeperation of <' Tho assistauce which many of the 

Slave Owners ^ ^ •' 

planters and their families gave the mis- 
sionaries was invaluable. They not only pro- 
vided places of worship, but they did all 
they could to encourage the attendance of 
the Negroes upon religious services. They 
assisted in teaching the little Negroes 
the Word of God, and in the absence of 
the missionary, held regigious services for 
the older ones. Many a dying slave had 
the couch of death softened by the tender 
ministrations of these faithful Christian 
owners. . . . 
'"wilafm^ One of the most interesting sights in 
plantation life was the missionary's ar- 
rival; his hearty greeting from scores and 
sometimes hundreds of little Negroes, cry- 
ing ' Preacher's come! ' which was fol- 
lowed by a general preparation for the 



Eeligious Development 231 

catecliising service, the singing of hymns 
he had taught them, and prayers. . . . 
Often the master and his family took part 
in the service held in a plain church pre- 
pared for it. . . . After this came the 
class-meetings conducted by the preacher, 
and they were fruitful of good. The 
prayer-meetings were often occasions of 
great power and blessing. Besides faith- 
ful catechising, all ages were taught the 
Apostle's Creed, the Ten Commandments, 
and the Lord's Prayer. Visits were made 
by the preacher to the aged and sick, and 
often the cabin home became the very ante- 
chamber of heaven. 

" The first missionaries appointed (by Missionaries and 
the South Carolina Conference) to the 
people ' of color ' (in 1829), were John 
Honour, John H. Massey, and James Dan- 
nelly, under the superintendence of Dr. 
Capers, and 657 members were gained 
during the year. In 1838, only nine years 
later, there were in that Conference 6,556 
members in the twelve plantation missions 
(besides the 23,498 members in the regular 
charges), and 25,025 Negro children study- 
ing the catechism prepared by Bishop 
Capers. In 1864 in that one State alone 



Results 



232 The Upward Path 

there were thirty-two missionaries giving 
their whole time to this work, with 13,373 
members of the missions, and $42,475 col- 
lected for its maintenance (and this not- 
withstanding the war was in progress with 
its ' hard times ')." 
Episcopal Church ^his work was wronght out in the face 
■ ''"stl^?y of many difficulties — but a still greater ob- 
stacle was added in the antagonism aroused 
in the public mind by the attitude of the 
Church toward slavery. The General Con- 
ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
in 1800 condemned Negro slavery in strong 
terms and urged its abolishment. The 
resolutions embodying this pronounce- 
ment were published, probably, by every 
newspaper in the South, and this was cal- 
culated to destroy the Methodist Church in 
that section. Later stringent enactments 
and a continual agitation of the subject 
embittered many against that Church. The 
antislavery sentiment was stronger in the 
South before this position was taken than 
it was at any subsequent time. It proved 
to be injurious to the preachers, the 
Church, and to the slaves themselves. 
Every Methodist preacher was regarded 
as an abolition agent, and indiscreet ones 



Keligious Development 233 

among them, trying to carry out the reso- 
lutions of the Conference, brought upon 
themselves the violence of the lawless ele- 
ments of society. Persecution against 
those who undertook to j^reach to the Ne- 
groes was now rife in every direction. 

" No apology can, or ought to be, made olcurltfon 
for those miscreants who resorted to vio- suspicion and 
lence in their treatment of Methodist '^"'™"*"^ 
preachers, not because they cared for the 
slaves or their masters, but because they 
loved deeds of violence. But the truth 
of history requires it to be stated that the 
Methodist Church had assumed the posi- 
tion of an abolitionist society, and it was 
natural that this should excite the sus- 
picions of the slaveholders, arouse the ani- 
mosity and opposition of those who 
were non-christian, and render the Church 
generally unpopular. It required almost 
a whole generation of time to overcome 
this hostility. "\Miere the Negroes were 
mingled with the white family, worship- 
ing under the same roof and taught by the 
same minister, it was easy enough to break 
down the prejudice."^ But on the large 
plantations, where the overseer and his 

1 Harrison and Barnes, The Gospel Among the Slaves, 143. 



234 The Upward Path 

family were the only white people, who 
could assure the owner that under the pre- 
tense of preaching the gospel his Negroes 
would not be stirred up to rebellion? 
o osiuolfto Violent expressions of disapproval of 
Aboiitionists^aiso abolitiou doctriues were not limited to the 
South. William Lloyd Garrison was 
mobbed and dragged through the streets 
of Boston in 1835, barely escaping with his 
life, and the entire press of the city, with 
one or two exceptions, approved the action 
of the mob. The English abolitionist, 
George Thompson, had a narrow escape 
from a mob in Concord, Massachusetts, 
and also in Augusta, Maine. Whittier was 
pelted with mud and stones. Prudence 
Crandall, for teaching colored girls in Can- 
terbury, Connecticut, was subjected to per- 
sistent, barbarous persecution. The shops 
and meeting-houses were closed against 
her and her pupils. " Carriage in public 
conveyance was denied them; physicians 
would not wait on them; Miss Crandall 's 
own family and friends were forbidden un- 
der many fines to visit her; the well was 
filled with manure, and water from other 
sources refused; the house itself was 
smeared with filth, assailed with rotten 



Eeligious Development 235 

eggs, and finally set on fire."^ At last 
Miss Crandall was expelled from tlie State 
by law, and an act was passed by the legis- 
lature prohibiting private schools for non- 
resident colored people and providing for 
their expulsion. At Canaan, New Hamp- 
shire, the Noyes Academy, '' open to pu- 
pils of both colors," in pursuance of a 
formal town meeting vote was dragged 
from the land within the corporate limits 
of the town and the teacher and colored 
pupils given a month in which to quit the 
town. 

It was largely left to the Methodist IS'caJers 
preachers in the South to stem this oppos- ^"'' ^^^^" 
ing current of public opinion. The exam- 
ple of the illustrious Bishop Capers was 
followed by many of the preachers and the 
owners becoming convinced that, instead 
of creating trouble and strife, the preach- 
ing of such men as these did much to pre- 
serve peace and good conduct among the 
Negroes, gave their full consent for their 
slaves to hear the gospel from these white 
missionaries. 

The division of the Methodist Church, 
in 1844, was regarded by wise and good 

^Life of William Lloyd Garrison, 321. 



236 The Upward Path 

men of that time as a necessity, to prevent 
the destruction of the Church in the 
South.^ The immediate result of the or- 
ganization of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, was the breaking down of 
every barrier in preaching the gospel to 
the slaves. The call for missionaries 
was heard throughout the whole of the 
South, where large numbers of slaves 
existed. 
^A^ous^eTto " The religious sentiment of the whole 
Missions to Slaves go^-^them couutry became keenly and jeal- 
ously aroused in behalf of slave missions. 
Every effort within the power of her 
Christian people was put forth to furnish 
the Negro, especially the plantation Negro, 
the light of the gospel. Men, women, and 
even little children contributed to the fund. 
. . . High and low alike entered into this 
noble work. There was no phase of it too 
humble, no duty too unjDleasant, to deter 
the most earnest and painstaking effort." - 
All the churches shared in this revival of 
interest, especially the Baptist, which out- 

1 Reference is made to the division of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church because of its historical importance and wide-spread effect 
on this work among the slaves. The divisions that occurred In 
other Churches were later and had little or no connection with 
slavery. 

2 Harrison and Barnes, The Gospel Among the Slaves, 302. 



Religious Development 237 

stripped all others in its Negro naember- 
ship. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, fc^^ft 
never held in its richest Churches, nor sent 
to any mission field, men of higher order 
of intellect, culture, or consecration than 
those who were appointed by it as super- 
intendents and pastors of its missions 
among the Southern slaves. Bishops An- 
drew, Capers, Early, McTyire, and Fitz- 
gerald; Drs. McFerrin, Evans, and many 
others, though called in after years to fill 
the highest offices in the Church, accounted 
among their richest experiences and hap- 
piest work that which came to them as mis- 
sionaries to the Negroes. 

There was scarcely any comparison now chingl" wrought 
between the condition of these plantation 
Negroes and their state when this work 
of evangelization was begun among them. 
Then, ** ignorant, superstitious, grossly 
immoral, it was like seeking to pierce im- 
penetrable darkness. Thousands of them 
could speak English in only a broken way, 
while hundreds still jabbered their African 
dialects. It was pitiful to hear them trying 
to pray in their broken language." ^ Now, 

1 Harrison anfl Barnes, The Gospel Among the SlaveSj 305. 



238 The Upward Path 

many of those who had received the gospel 
seed in hearts, made fertile by the Holy 
Spirit, became themselves the sowers of 
the Word. And so this work of grace grew 
and multiplied, until thousands and thou- 
sands were converted to Christ and by 
their lives gave abundant evidence of his 
righteousness. 
Religious Christian Negroes gained, while in slav- 

Expenence 007 

^^sfavery ^^y^ ^^^ ^^^5" ^ ^^^® mental conception of 
God, but a spiritual perception of his truth 
which their related experiences and 
prayers made manifest to those who heard 
them in that day. A record of this fact 
has been preserved and handed down to 
later generations in their songs, and of 
them more than of any other people it may 
be said, *' Their songs are the voice of the 
soul." To those well versed in what are 
called Plantation Melodies, it is clear thrt 
not only did the Negro possess an ortho- 
dox theology but it possessed him, perme- 
ating, as it did, his whole life, and molding 
his religious experience. 
Negro Melodies a rp|-^g Ncgro was cvcr siugiug; he saug 

of his troubles and hopes, his bondage and 
his freedom. Mingled with these were 
echoes of his struggles with sin, his striv- 



Eeligious Development 239 

ing after godliness, his fleeing from Satan, 
his search for God." ^ 

After the Civil War there were some 
sporadic efforts made by the Southern 
white people to continue or renew the work 
of Christianizing the Negroes with past 
methods; but this was rendered difficult 
and often impossible by the conditions that 
prevailed during the Reconstruction 
Period. Kindly feeling for them still ex- 
isted with many, and the hand of help was 
extended whenever and wherever those 
conditions made it possible. The attitude 
of the Negro mind toward the white people 
who had once owned them caused them to 
refuse to occupy the sittings formerly as- 
signed them in the white churches, and to 
seek to build their own churches. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Methodists 
in organizing its colored members into a 
separate Church bestowed on them all the 
churches it had built for their distinctive 
use — a rich gift — and aided them in every 
possible way. A large number of its col- 
ored members, however, went into the 
Methodist Episcopal Church and into the 

1 Procter, Southern WorTcman, November, 1907. Tbe author is 
ittuch indebted to this writer for some suggestions in the detailed 
account of Plantation Melodies given in Appendix B. 



240 The Upward Path 

African Methodist Episcopal Church, 
from which bodies they received much help 
in the building of churches and in the edu- 
cation and support of the ministry. 

^*p%th"rs The Baptist congregations had less diffi- 
culty in securing and maintaining a dis- 
tinct Negro Church, for they had more 
churches for their exclusive use while 
slaves, and these were retained by them 
without the necessity of legal procedure. 
These also have received help from both 
Southern and Northern friends of that de- 
nomination as the years have gone by. 
Other Churches have aided in the direct 
work of evangelization by preaching the 
gospel and in building churches for the 
Negroes. 
christian^hSo*is But by far the greatest work for their 
religious betterment since emancipation 
has been done through the Christian 
schools established for their benefit by the 
white churche and mission boards, North 
and South, and by their own intelligent ef- 
forts resulting from the advantages thus 
gained. 
^chJrch ^6 have noted the progress of the 

Organization American Negro as a citizen in his indus- 
trial and economic attainments, his home 



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Eeligious Development 241 

and social life, his political, criminal, and 
physical status. We have also seen him 
as a student in all the different phases of 
his educational world. We must now turn 
our attention to the still more important 
side of his nature, the spiritual, and con- 
sider him as a Christian, and see how far 
he has advanced in Church organization 
and attainment in righteousness. Eelig- 
ious statistics are always difficult to obtain 
because of the inaccuracy of Church 
records. This is markedly the case among 
the Negroes, and the difficulty is increased 
by the fact that some white Churches have 
Negro members whom they do not report 
separately. 

The majority of the Negroes are Bap- stScr"**"*' 
tists or Methodists. In Dr. Strong's So- 
cial Progress, for 1906 the combined re- 
ports of eight Negro Methodist organiza- 
tions place their membership at 1,863,258, 
with 14,844 regular preachers and 30,725 
local preachers. Their Church property is 
valued at $22,267,298. The colored Bap- 
tist Churches report a membership of 
2,038,427, with 16,080 ministers, and 
Church property valued at $12,196,130. 
There are some Baptist organizations with 



242 The Upward Path 

a considerable following of which no report 
could be obtained. Besides these, there 
are a large number of colored members in 
the following Churches : Methodist Episco- 
pal, Presbyterian (North and South), Re- 
formed Presbyterian, Protestant Episco- 
pal, Congregational, Disciples of Christ, 
some small Methodist bodies, Lutheran, 
and Roman Catholic. Considering the rate 
of growth in the past it will be a safe esti- 
mate to say that at this time there are 
4,500,000 enrolled as Church members, and 
at least 3,000,000 adherents; or that more 
than two thirds of the entire Negro popula- 
tion are related to some Church. 
Me^hodfs" The first Church organization for Ne- 
^"churdl groes only was the African Methodist 
Episcopal Church, which was effected un- 
der the leadership of Richard Allen. 
' ' This was owing to a defection among the 
colored members in Philadelphia, by which 
upward of 1,000 in that city withdrew from 
the Methodist Episcopal Church. ... At 
their first General Conference Richard Al- 
len was elected Bishop. "^ This Church 
spread slowly at first through the North- 
em States but did not come South until af- 

1 Bangs, History of MethoMam. 



Religious Development 243 

ter the Civil War. Now it is widely dis- 
tributed, having 762,580 members and 
property valued at $10,360,131. It has 
to-day in Africa one hundred and eighty 
mission stations with 12,000 members, be- 
sides missions in Canada and the West In- 
dies. It supports at home twenty-five 
schools, with about 4,000 pupils and prop- 
erty valued at $535,000. 

The African Methodist Episcopal Zion AethoSist 
Church was organized in New York and churcT'^"*" 
had a similar history to the African Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church. Its last available 
report claims 575,271 members and 
Church property of all kinds valued at 
$5,102,567. It has established and main- 
tained nineteen schools. These two 
Churches have united and the consolidated 
organization forms one of the largest de- 
nominations in this country. It is possible 
that other smaller Negro Methodist de- 
nominations will in the near future unite 
with them. 

The Colored Methodist Episcopal SoL 
Church was organized in 1866 by the church and 

-. /-M n i i? Others 

Methodist Episcopal Church, South, out ot 
its colored members. Two bishops of their 
own election were ordained, and all Church 



244 The Upward Path 

l^roperty that had been acquired, held, and 
used for Methodist Negroes was turned 
over to them. This Church has now 209,- 
972 communicants and property vahied at 
$2,525,600. It suports five schools and has 
a publishing house worth $20,000. There 
are four smaller Methodist organizations 
and the Methodist Episcopal Church has 
292,109 colored members. 

'^^"coIiSnuon ^^^ ^^'^^ Baptist church for colored peo- 
ple was organized in Williamsburg, Vir- 
ginia, in 1796. There are now six Baptist 
denominations, the largest being known as 
the Regular Baptists and has 1,348,989 
members with property valued at $9,038,- 
549. ' ' These Baptist churches unite in as- 
sociations and State conventions for mis- 
sionary and educational work. For a 
long time, however, it seemed impossible to 
unite any large number of them in a na- 
tional convention, but this has at last been 
done. The National Baptist Convention 
(all Negroes) was organized at Atlanta, 
. Georgia, September 28, 1895. Its objects 
are missionary and educational work and 
the publication of religious literature. ' ' ^ 
The most remarkable result of the 

1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 8. 



Eeligious Development 245 

united effort of the Negro Baptists is the ^l^^l ^jtist 
home mission department, including the p^^eign Missions 
publishing house. For these purposes in 
1902 they expended $81,658. They have 
established foreign missions in various 
parts of Africa, the West Indies, South 
America, and Russia. In these missions 
they support thirty-seven missionaries and 
a large number of native helpers. Of the 
missionaries, eight are American Negroes 
and eleven are native Africans who have 
received their education in America. 
Through its educational department, this 
Church maintains in America eighty 
schools, with probably 6,000 or 7,000 pu- 
pils. They are for the most part primary 
and secondary schools, and supplement the 
public schools. School property is valued 
at $564,000, and they raised in 1902 the 
sum of $127,941 for education. Forty- 
three periodicals are published by them. 

The Christian Church (Disciples of 2l"^taJother 
Christ) reported in 1908 a membership of i>«'>»--«««°« 
55,881 and 475 ministers in strictly Negro 
churches. The Congregational, Presby- 
terian, Cumberland Presbyterian, and 
Episcopal Negro Churches are largely the 
immediate result of the educational institu- 



246 The Upward Path 

tions of these Churches, and as a general 
thing their ministers and congregations are 
from the educated class, but they are few 
in number and increase slowly. The mem- 
bership of these four denominations num- 
bers about 65,000. They have no distinct 
general organizations, but are affiliated 
with the white churches through whose 
missionary effort they were organized. 
Roman Catholics There are but few Roman Catholics out- 
side of Louisiana and other parts of the 
country that were formerly under French 
or Spanish domination. No statistics con- 
cerning them could be obtained. 
Missionary and Jq all of thcse Churchcs there are 

Benevolent 

Societies -^^omen's missionary societies more or less 
developed and effective. There are also 
many benevolent societies that do much 
local home mission and charity work. 
There are generally societies of various 
kinds for young i3eople and children. The 
difficulty of procuring correct data of these 
organizations renders it impossible to even 
estimate their numerical or s^Diritual force. 
Outside of the regular i^reaching service, 
the Sunday-school is the most universal 
and best developed feature in all the 
Churches, and the teaching and training of 



Eeligious Development 247 

Sunday-school teachers presents a large 
opportunity to those who desire to do local 
missionary work among the Negroes. 

The Young Men's Christian Association ^^ij!!""''' 
is doing a good and growing work both in Association 
city and college. There are at present one 
hundred and twenty-six colored associa 
tions with a membership of 9,198, and six- 
teen buildings are owned, valued at $185,- 
900. There are twenty-eight secretaries 
employed by the local associations. 

CHURCH CONDITIONS AND METHODS 

The Atlanta University has issued as 
one of its social studies a pamphlet desig- 
nated " The Negro Church. "^ Though 
one may not agree with all the conclusions 
drawn, yet the first-hand investigations it 
presents are very valuable. These investi- 
gations are made by intelligent, educated 
Negroes in different localities, North and 
South, and are generally based on the fol- 
lowing inquiries: 

1. What is the condition of the churches 1 

2. What is the influence of the churches ? 

1 This pamphlet Is prepared and edited by Dr. W. E. B. DuBoIs, 
of the Atlanta University, who is one of the leading Negroes in 
the South in the advocacy of higher education. That publication 
is responsible for the statements under this heading. 



248 The Upward Path 

3. Are the ministers good? 

4. What charity work is done? 

5. What is done for the young people? 

6. Are moral standards being raised? 
The responses made to these questions 

are remarkable chiefly for their diversity, 
running from one end of the gamut of 
opinion to the other — from the extreme of 
optimism to the extreme of pessimism. 
This is what might be expected in any in- 
vestigation of the religious life of individ- 
uals or of communities, yet the facts and 
illustrations upon which these opinions are 
based are extremely interesting and sug- 
gestive. It would not be possible here to 
give more than a brief summary of these, 
with a few items especially illustrative. 
County fn Ih a ' ' black belt " county of Georgia 
Georgia thcrc arc ninety-eight churches of all de- 
nominations, the Baptist predominating, 
for a Negro population of 17,450. *' Un- 
like most of our American poi^ulation, the 
Negro is well churched. It is his only in- 
stitution and forms the center of his pub- 
lic life." Many of these churches have 
been formed as the result of '' a split " 
caused by internal dissension, and not 
from the home mission work of the larger 



Eeligious Develoj}ment 249 

churches. These churches demand the 
shout-producing preacher, and vahie his 
ability to preach " rousement " sermons 
more than his education or morals. The 
result is that young men of ability and edu- 
cation are driven out of the ministry and 
the Church has no influence over those of 
both sexes who have been to college nor 
can draw them to its services, except as it 
furnishes them amusement. Inordinate 
rivalry exists between the denominations 
to the extent of '' petty meannesses," and 
money ranks a member higher than moral- 
ity. There are about one hundred and 
twenty preachers in the county. The 
number might be doubled if there were 
added all who call themselves preachers 
and who try to interpret the Word of God. 
Out of forty-three applicants for admis- 
sion to a Methodist Conference, thirty-five 
were refused, but that did not deter them 
from preaching. 

Learned or unlearned, the Negro fh'eTi'adIrr 
preacher is to-day the leader of the race. 
The ig-norant preacher has an ignorant 
wife and their home life is on no higher 
level than those of the congregation. In 
morality they have much to learn : moral- 



250 The Upward Path 

ity as it affects (1) temperance, (2) debt- 
paying and business honesty, (3) sexual 
relations. Eesponses from intelligent lay- 
men in this county generally accuse the 
preachers of being sexually immoral and 
many say " the influence of the Church is 
bad," yet these statements are contra- 
dicted by others who say " the moral 
standards are being raised." One says, 
" There are fewer separations of hus- 
bands and wives, and fewer illegitimate 
children. ' ' 
Farmviiie ^t Farmvillc, Virginia, a small town. 

Institutional 707 7 

Church there is a Baptist church that in a way is 
a good representative of the down-town or 
institutional church so strongly advocated 
by many Church leaders. The auditorium 
is large and attractive. " It is the central 
club-house of the Baptist part of the com- 
munity. Various organizations meet 
there, entertainments and lectures are 
given, and the whole social life centers 
there. The unifying and directing force is, 
however, in religious exercises of some 
sort. The result of this is not so much 
that recreation and social life have become 
stiff and austere, but rather that relig- 
ious exercises have acquired a free and 



/=% 





^KSj^p^wflsrj "^rf* 



It 

rmtJf 




St. Athanasius' Protestant Episcopal Church, 
Brunswick, Georgia 




First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia 



Keligious Development 251 

easy expression and in some respects 
serve as amusements. For instance, the 
camp-meeting is a picnic with incidental 
sermons and singing; the rally of the 
country churches, called the ' big meetin',' 
is the occasion of the pleasantest social in- 
tercourse, with a free barbecue; the Sun- 
day-school convention and the various 
preachers' conventions are occasions of 
reunions and festivities. Even the weekly 
Sunday service serves as a pleasant meet- 
ing-place for working people who find little 
time for visiting during the week. . . . 

" From these facts, however, one must f^M^^^j^'ceil^, 
not hastily form the conclusion that the re- 
ligion of such churches is hollow or their 
spiritual influence wanting. While under 
present circumstances the Negro church 
cannot be simply a spiritual agency, but 
must also be a social, intellectual, and eco- 
nomic center, it nevertheless is a spiritual 
center of wide influence that carries noth- 
ing immoral or baneful. The sermons are 
apt to be fervent repetitions of an ortho- 
dox Calvinism . . . with strong condem- 
nation of the grosser sins and of gossip 
and ' meanness.' . . . There are long-con- 
tinued revivals, but with fewer of the 



252 The Upward Path 

wild scenes of excitement that used to be 
the rule. " ^ 

^^^^MifJtl ^^ ^^® ^^^y ^^ Atlanta, where there was 
in 1900 a Negro population of 35,727, there 
are fifty-four churches — twenty-nine Bap- 
tist and twenty-one Methodist — and only 
four of other denominations. Their united 
membership is 16,261 and church property 
is valued at $252,508. Some of the 
churches have good buildings and large 
congregations. Some of them are in debt 
and some are small and the membership 
poor. The characters of the pastors are 
pronounced good, and their education 
fair, though there are some exceptions. 
The education of the members varies from 
'' fair " to '' very poor." 
^"^Membe^rThfp Many of the most influential wealthy 
churches of this city are Baptist, while 
others of that denomination are among the 
poorest. One of the latter class claims 
only six active members and another only 
fourteen, while one of the first class has 
1,560 active members that include some of 
the best colored people of the city and has 
less than a hundred illiterate persons. 
The pastor has a good character and a 

1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 8, pp. 81, 82. 



Religious Development 253 

good education. It has one of the largest 
Sunday-schools in the city, supports two 
missions, and does a large amount of char- 
ity work. 

One of the largest Methodist churches othlV A"a°i!ta 
in Atlanta has 500 active members and is ^'»"'«=hes 
composed of the best class of working peo- 
ple with a large number of educated peo- 
ple and graduates of schools. The pastor 
is '' a gentleman and an honest man." It 
supports a salaried deaconess to take 
charge of its charitable work. It does 
much for its young people, having a large 
Sunday-school, besides classes in cooking 
and sewing and a week-day class in relig- 
ious training. Another Methodist church 
has 600 active members, and a total mem- 
bership of 1,400 composed of some of the 
most influential and cultured colored peo- 
ple in the city, a considerable number of 
them being school-teachers and property 
owners. The church is a handsome edifice 
that cost $50,000 and seats 3,000 people. 
It expends much in charity, and last year 
contributed $360 for missions. The pastor 
has a good character and a good education. 

The pastors of the Congregational, g*,'^„^J„i„ations 
Episcopal, and Presbyterian Churches of '" '^"""'^ 



254 The Upward Path 

Atlanta are described as having excellent 
characters and as finely educated. Most of 
the members are educated and a large per 
cent, are business and professional men 
and women. The four have a combined 
membership of 883. 
^*"Richmond Couditious at Richmond, Virginia, are 
similar to those in Atlanta. There are 
fewer churches, but these have a larger 
membership and their church buildings are 
better. In fact, these conditions with some 
modifications are found in many cities of 
the South. 
Descriptionsare Theso dcscriptious of different classes 
of city and country churches in Georgia 
and Virginia may serve as illustrations 
of the conditions existing throughout the 
South, varying more or less according 
to the local conditions of education, 
wealth, and personal preference. There 
are some good and some bad preachers, 
some educated and some ignorant congre- 
gations, some handsome churches and 
some dirty hovels. Many churches are in 
debt. The preachers in the country 
churches and small towns are generally 
poorly paid, but they usually live as well 
as their congregations, who are as liberal 



Religious Development 255 

as their own scant incomes admit. The 
Negro churches in the North vary in 
character as they do in the South, and as 
a whole are neither better nor worse. 

In New York City tliere are not less churches'' ^"^ 
than 30,000 Negroes who are crystallized 
around three most undesirable centers. 
There are nine churches and three mis- 
sions belonging to the different denomina- 
tions. ' ' The aggregate church membership 
is very little less than 4,000. The average 
attendance upon worship at night (nobody 
there attends a colored church to any ex- 
tent except at night) is nearly 3,000. . . . 
There are only 1,725 pupils in the Sunday- 
schools, with an average attendance of 
1,200. There is a lack of competent 
teachers and of means to procure better 
facilities, and many families are too poor 
to supply decent clothing for their chil- 
dren. . . . The church property is valued 
at $617,500, with an indebtedness on it of 
$100,000, while less than $100,000 has been 
contributed by white people to the aid of 
these better places of worship. ... A few 
individual members are in comfortable 
circumstances, but not one would be rightly 
considered wealthy. . . . The colored ten- 



256 The Upward Path 

ants pay a higher rent than any other 
class, and they must feed and clothe them- 
selves with all the chances in the industrial 
field against them. . . . There is a constant 
stream of colored immigrants from the 
South, mostly unskilled laborers, and their 
simple Southern faith does not seem to 
stand very well the chilling touch of a 
Northern atmosphere. . . . Many refuse 
to affiliate with our churches. . . . Exposed 
to the temptations of city life, the number 
of them that drift back into sin is appall- 
ing. "^ 

%naderphi2 In 1900 Philadelphia had 62,613 Ne- 
groes. There were fifty-five churches in 
all, with 13,000 members and property 
valued at $910,000. ''The social life cen- 
ters in the church and this central club- 
house tends to become more and more lux- 
uriously furnished. . . . The average Ne- 
gro preacher in this city is a shrewd man- 
ager, a respectable man, a good talker, a 
pleasant companion, but neither learned 
nor spiritual, nor a reformer. The moral 
standards are set by the congregation and 
vary from church to church. ' ' ^ 

^°*chicago Conditions are much better in Eastern 

1 " The Religious Condition of New York City," 58-62. 

2 DuBois, " The Philadelphia Negro," 204. 



Eeligious Development 257 

cities than in Chicago. The Negro popula- 
tion there was over 30,000 in 1900, and 
out of that number there were only about 
5,000 active Church members reported in 
the thirty-two churches. Only sixteen of 
these churches own the places where 
they worship, and all but two carry large 
debts. All church property is valued 
at $178,800. Some of the jDreachers are 
reported as '^ immoral," or '' intemper- 
ate, " or " dishonest ; ' ' some of the congre- 
gations are described as " intelligent," 
'^ rather intelligent," and " ignorant." 
'' As a rule the churches are marked with 
inefficiency and a lack of a proper regard 
for the moral development of the people in 
honesty, sexual purity, and other virtues. 
The larger churches, some of them impos- 
ing edifices, are largely attended by fash- 
ionably dressed people. The smaller ones 
have a hard struggle to exist. There is a 
constant demand for money in all of 
them." '' The young people of the intel- 
lectual class are not attracted to the 
church. . . . One of the largest churches 
set a premium upon ignorance and drove 
the younger element from the church. . . . 
A very small percentage of our profes- 



258 The Upward Path 

sional men and women are regular in their 
church attendance. ' ' ^ 

^^"'SlSd '' The standards of life are being raised, 
and there is a marked improvement in the 
matter of purity of life," says Dr. H. B. 
Frissell, the President of Hampton Insti- 
tute, who has had twenty-one years of ex- 
perience in the schools and homes of the 
colored people. There are various grades 
of morality among Negroes (as among 
other people), and a vast work yet remains 
to be done for them and by them that they 
may be fully Christianized, but it is due to 
them that they " be sometimes judged by 
their best and not always by their worst." 

Large Mass^fo^be L^rgo masscs of the people both on the 
plantations and in city slums are fearfully 
ignorant and immoral. They are still un- 
der the sway of superstition ; there is scan- 
ty school training in many rural districts 
for only a few months in the year ; there is 
nothing from the better outside life to 
stimulate mind or spirit; no influence ex- 
cept in the church for their uplift, and, 
alas! this is often lacking because the 
preacher is no whit above themselves 
either in knowledge or morality. 

1 Atlanta University Publications, No. S. 



Religious Development 259 

" It has been said that the Negro plan- fn'S*"" 
tation preacher is the curse of the people. 
Honesty, truth, and purity are not taught, 
because neither he nor the people have 
come to realize that these virtues are es- 
sential to the religious life. The ethical 
power of Christianity is scarcely felt. The 
time is ripe for a forward gospel campaign 
in the great, needy ' back country ' of the 
Black Belt. "1 

A campaign is needed that will include cllliSgn^""''' 
both the evangelist and the pastor, who 
should be a patient instructor in right- 
eousness. These people need not only to 
accept the truth, but to be established and 
built up in the truth — to be Christianized 
as well as evangelized. 

It is coming to be more and more a habit i5|"ure"of 
of thought and speech to put ethics and ^^^ '^^^** 
emotion on different sides of the religious 
balances, and to presuppose that where the 
latter exists to any great degree the 
former is lacking. Growing out of this 
view, a demand almost is made upon the 
Negro to repress his emotional nature, to 
forbid its expression in his religious ser- 
vices, and by this to give evidence that he 

1 Atlanta University Publications, No. 8. 



Misunderstood 



260 The Upward Path 

has progressed in the true religious life 
and attained to the ethical stage. What 
would Wesley and Whitefield and Finney 
and hundreds of great " preachers of 
righteousness " in the past, and Evan 
Eoberts, one of the greatest evangelists of 
to-day, say of this doctrine of repression? 
Ex^Sns That the Negro has an emotional relig- 
ion has been dwelt upon in the discussions 
of the spiritual side of his life and counted 
against his possession of the real religious 
experience. His shouting, moans of grief, 
and tears of joy, fervent ejaculations, 
vivid experiences, all are regarded as sim- 
ply the physical excitement of the ignorant 
and often of the immoral. A protest must 
be entered here against such misunder- 
standing of the Negro Christian who thus 
expresses his emotion. Of course there 
may be, and unquestionably are, many 
hypocrites among them (certainly there 
are among white people), who thus ape 
what they think will give the appearance 
of piety, and many who transcend all the 
bounds of propriety, even decency. Of 
these there are a great number whose 
every-day lives are far from being pious 
or moral. These and their demonstrations 



Religious Development 261 

are the counterfeit of the real Christians 
who " let their joys be known," and their 
inconsistent lives should receive Church 
discipline, and firm restraint should be put 
upon their unseemly exercises. These per- 
sons should not, however, be taken as a 
type of a large body of Christians. 

The Christian religion is based on the RenSEmotion 
emotion of love. Jesus said the first and 
greatest commandment was to love God, 
and the second to love mankind, and that 
on these two " hang all the law and the 
prophets." The fruits of the Spirit are 
expressed in the terms of emotion — " love, 
joy, peace "—and out of these comes as a 
natural growth a righteous life. Since, ac- 
cording to Christ's words, all true Chris- 
tians possess an emotional religion, the 
seen difference in them must be that some 
desire and are able to control those emo- 
tions in their outward expression and 
some do not. There are three classes of 
people who are noticeably lacking in self- 
control of any kind— young children, ig- 
norant people, and mentally or morally 
weak people. 

The Negro is a child race in its de- 
velopment. In the African wilds they did 



262 The Upward Path 

Emotional not leam how to control either their emo- 

Expression 

andTnd"vWua1s ^i^iis or appetites, and these grew weakJ 
through indulgence. In slavery they were' 
controlled in everything else more than 
in these. Self-control means self-mastery 
and belongs to maturity of life, and! 
is the result of mental and moral train- 
ing. There are very many Negroes, as we 
have seen, who are very ignorant, and 
these, like ignorant, untrained people of 
other races, are easily swayed by their 
feelings, whatever they may be, and give 
uncontrolled expression to them. It is also 
true that some races are more demonstra- 
tive than others — the Latin races more 
than the Teutonic, the Negro more than 
the Indian — some individuals more than 
others of the same race, and even of the 
same family. 
"^ ReSous ^^^ Negro as a race may be said to have 
Temperament ^ rcligious temperament. He has heart 
power, the power of loving, and a vivid 
imagination that lays hold with strong 
faith on the unseen. "When he has come 
into the Christian life and before he has 
learned self-control he finds great satisfac- 
tion in giving outward expression to the 
deep feelings that fill his heart and over- 



Eeligious Development 263 

master him. As self-control is gained, the 
outward, physical demonstrations grad- 
ually cease with him as with the educated 
of other races. A\^ile the ignorant masses 
of Negroes, especially in the rural dis- 
tricts, have not outgrown the " noisy meet- 
ing," the process of evolution along the 
educational and social lines is manifested 
in that the better educated, more refined 
Negroes have left these things behind 
them. It would be as genuine a surprise to 
some of their best city congregations to 
hear a shout in their midst as such a 
demonstration would be in a neighboring 
white church. 

While all this is true, a protest must be ithfci^possibie 
entered against the idea that because a 
Christian, white or black, man or woman, 
gives outward manifestation to the in- 
ward joy, therefore there is no intelligent 
conception of divine truths or that there is 
a lack of their ethical expression in the life. 
During the days of slavery, many of those 
who were " shouting Christians " were 
also living members of the body of Christ, 
and walked in their integrity uncondemned 
before God and man, and there are such 
persons living to-day whose godly, unsel- 



Companions 



264 The Upward Path 

fish lives would be an example to some who 
have better control over their emotions. 
The Negroes as a race may not yet possess 
the highly cultured conscience that would 
enable them to deal with fine turns of 
casuistry and hair-splitting ethics, but let 
them have time — the processes of develop- 
ment in the spirit world are as slow as in 
the natural — give them time and help them 
to know God's Word and love God's will, 
and the hope may be entertained that they 
^^11 grow into a race of good men and 
women who are good because they love 
God and delight to do his will. 
Soul Culture and God grant that soul culture may be kept 

Mental Culture ^ ^ ± 

Needed j^ ]\^q ipjrith mcutal culturc in the Negro's 
progress! There is every reason to hope 
that it will be, since much of the help that 
has come to him has come from the Church 
of God, and, still more, because of his own 
religious temperament. In God's great 
plan for the redemption of the world, who 
can say what part of his purpose is re- 
served for this race to accomplish? Let 
the race look to it that it be ready to carry 
out that purpose when made manifest by 
him who rules the hearts and destinies of 
men and of worlds. 



Eeligious Development 285 

SUGGESTED QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VII 

Aim: To Estimate the Negro's Religious Progress, 
AND THE Present Religious Needs Among the 
Negroes 
1.* Describe the Negro's religion when he came to 

America. 
2.* What was his idea of the relation of moral 
conduct to his religion? 

3. Is it an easy task to supplant old beliefs and 
superstitions? Why not? 

4. By what organizations was the first missionary 
work done among the Negroes? 

5. Describe the beginning of the work done by 
your denomination. 

6. What was the relation of the whites in the 
South to these missionary efforts? 

7. How were the missionaries received by the 
owners and slaves on plantations? 

8. What denomination in the South was especially 
active in the campaign for the aboliton of slav- 
ery? 

9. How did the antislavery movement retard 
missionary effort? 

10.* Tabulate the progress in religious development 
among the Negroes up to the time of the Civil 
War. 

11. Describe the attitude of the two races in the 
South toward each other immediately after the 
war. 

12. What was the effect of these conditions upon 
the religious life of the Negro? 

13.* What conclusions would you reach in estimat- 
ing the growth of Negro indep: icut Churches? 
14. In what directions are they best developed ? 
15.* Where do you consider conditions more favor- 



266 The Upward Path 

able for the religious development of the Ne- 
gro in the rural or urban communities, in the 
North or the South? State reasons. 

16.* Can the Negroes provide for their own religious 
needs'? Give reasons for and against. 

17.* If you had $50,000 to invest in the religious up- 
lift of the Negroes, where would you place it, 
and why? 

18* Sum up in the order of importance what you 
consider the greatest and most pressing relig- 
ious needs among the Negroes. 

Eeferences fob Further Study. — Chapter VII 

Beligious WorJc Among Negroes} 

DuBois: The Souls of the Black Folk, X. 
Washington and DuBois: The Negro in the 
South, IV. 
Whipple: Negro Neighbors, IV. 



1 For the most recent information regarding the religious con- 
dition of the Negro, the denominational home mission magazines 
should be read. 



THE NEXT STEP: NEED AND SUPPLY 



I would not presume to speak dogmatically as to the 
mind of God with reference to the future status of the 
Negro. . . . On what specific lines the race will move 
through the coming centuries, I dare not attempt to 
prophesy. But I do know that all our dealings with 
these people should be in spirit and according to the 
ethics of the Man of Galilee. What is best for them 
now should be the measure of present duty, leaving the 
future to the hands of him who knows the end from the 
beginning. And we must insist that the Negro have 
equal opportunity with every American citizen to fulfil 
to himself the highest purposes of an all-wise and benefi- 
cent Providence. 

— Charles B. Galloway 

The slaves brought into the South a few centuries 
ago, in ignorance, in superstition, and weakness, are now 
a free people, multiplied into 8,000,000; they are sur- 
rounded, protected, encouraged, educated in hand, heart, 
and head, given the full protection of the law, the high- 
est justice meted out to him through courts and legis- 
lative enactments, they are stimulated and not oppressed, 
made citizens and not aliens, made to understand by 
word and act that in proportion as they show them- 
selves worthy to bear responsibilities, the greater oppor- 
tunities will be given them. I see them loving you, trust- 
ing you, adding to the wealth, the intelligence, the re- 
nown of each Southern commonwealth. In turn, I see 
you confiding in them, ennobling them, beckoning them 
on to the highest success, and we have all been made 
to appreciate in full that, 

" The slave's chain and the master's alike are broken. 
The one curse of the race held both in tether; 
They are rising, all are rising. 
The black and white together." 

— Booker T. Washington 



vin 

THE NEXT STEP: NEED AND SUPPLY 

WE have seen tlie great extent of mis- J^'"f„^^XI* 
sionary effort for the Negro which 
has been made along educational lines, and 
also that to the schools established and 
maintained for his benefit is due not only 
his mental development, but much of the 
religious advancement that has come to 
him since his emancipation. We have also 
seen that missionary work for him has not 
been limited to the schools and that which 
emanated from the schools. Direct work 
has been done in building churches and 
supporting the regular ministry and, to 
some extent, lay missionaries. The very 
fact that so much has been done in the past 
with such large results only emphasizes 
the importance of continuing through this 
work to obey our Lord's command. Not 
only did he commission us to preach the 
gospel to every creature, but to '' make 
disciples of all the nations," and to teach 



270 The Upward Path 

them to ' ' observe all things ' ' that he com- 
manded. To those acquainted with the 
facts it is unnecessary to say that we have 
not yet taught this nation to know and ob- 
serve the " all things " of Christ. Nor 
does this statement surprise those who 
have knowledge of missionary work among 
any people. 
Lack of It would afford both an interesting and 

Cooperation a "^ 

Waste an inspiring study to take the records of 
each denomination and sum up the united 
efforts of the Church of God to Christian- 
ize the American Negro. From such a 
study a new light of hope would come with 
the knowledge of how much the Negro 
Churches themselves have done and are 
doing for the redemption of their own race. 
But this study cannot at present be made 
intelligently because of the lack of such 
records in usable form. In any effort to 
gather the facts concerning the education 
and evangelization of the Negro one must 
face a situation none the less diflScult to 
deal with because of its frequent occur- 
rence in the work of the Church of God; 
that is, the lack of concerted and harmoni- 
ous action between the different denomina- 
tions composing the Church. This has 



The Next Step: Need and Supply 271 

caused much waste of funds and energy in 
an overlapping that duplicates effort in 
some localities and in some departments, 
and leaves others neglected; and, worse 
still, it has engendered a harmful rivalry 
between the denominations. 

That we have reached the dawn of a bet- eftte" Day 
ter day is clearly manifest. The spirit of 
unity and cooperation is in the air, and 
great Church organizations are putting 
aside distrust, division, and rivalry, and 
are drawing closer together, saying: *' We 
be brethren, the sons of one Father, and 
must go about our Father's business, lov- 
ing one another even as he hath loved us. ' ' 
One great step in this direction was the re- 
cent organization of the Home Missions 
Council, a federation of Home Mission 
Boards, having for its purpose the unifica- 
tion of the work of the Churches repre- 
sented in it, or their harmonious coopera- 
tion in that work. 

The first duty of the Council was the ap- ^Z.Tf '"""" 
pointment of a committee or commission 
on comity. This committee should give its 
immediate consideration to the work where 
its offices are most needed — missionary 
work for the Negroes. At present the mis- 



272 The Upward Path 

sion boards are each doing its Negro work 
as if it alone was in the field, knowing little 
or nothing of what others are doing, with 
the results as above stated. To these 
boards should be issued by the Council 
blanks upon which to tabulate in clear, ex- 
plicit statements the locality, extent, char- 
acter and cost of its work for the Negro; 
giving the date of establishing the work, 
the amount of money expended since that 
tune, and value of property accumulated. 
With this should go also an account of the 
methods used, frankly stating their suc- 
cess or failure along different lines. These 
reports should be carefully considered by 
the committee, summarized, and tabulated 
as a whole, so that a clear view may be ob- 
tained by each denomination of the work 
of the others and of the joint work of the 
Church of God, of which they are now in 
hurtful ignorance. To this summing up 
of the work of the Church the committee 
should be prepared to add similar statis- 
tics of the educational work for the Negro 
of every kind that has been done, and is 
being done, by the national and state gov- 
ernments ; also of the large gifts made to 
this work by philanthropists outside of 
Church channels. 



The Next Step: Need and Supply 273 

The submission of this matter to the cor"rat!on"* 
Council presupposes a desire to profit by 
the information thus gathered in the future 
operations of the boards. If this has the 
hoped-for result, the work and claims of 
each Church being weighed and properly 
considered by the council as to locality, 
character, and success, the outcome will be 
the acceptance by each of its rightful place 
and in its doing its best where it is most 
needed. Then such questions as these will 
have a reasonable answer : Wliy should one 
small city have three rival institutions for 
Negro youth, while other cities and large 
rural districts are left without one? 
Would not one or two well-conducted, well- 
equipped normal schools in a State be bet- 
ter than tacking on a '' normal depart- 
ment " to many academies that can 
scarcely maintain their academic course? 
When the great need of the large mass of 
the race can be met only by the public 
school system of the State, for which there 
may be insufficient funds, does not that 
seem a better direction for philanthropic 
gifts than for them to be used in inaugu- 
rating new enterprises for the benefit of a 
few who can have their need supplied else- 



274 The Upward Path 

where? Might it not be wise for some in- 
stitutions to give up their futile efforts 
to maintain a college department and what- 
ever false glory that name has given them, 
and to adopt the more honest name and 
purpose of an academy or high school? 
Their loss would be only a seeming one, 
while there would come from it a real gain 
to the true college. 

Strengthen''work ^^^ cffcct of mutual kuOWlcdgC, COUplcd 

with the purpose to cooperate, would be to 
quicken zeal by making it more intelligent, 
to raise the standard of work by a proper 
recognition of its quality, and to secure 
more permanent as well as sj^iritual re- 
sults. It would increase and strengthen 
the best things, and lead to the abandon- 
ment of that which is not worth while. 
Better one good thing well done than many 
indifferent things half done. The advice 
of Poor Richard is good in missionary 
work as well as elsewhere: '' Learn what 
you can't do, and cease trying; learn what 
you can do, and do it with all your might. ' ' 
NSr'S'cVuS Not only should the white Churches work 
under rules of comity in their missionary 
efforts for the Negroes, but the Negroes as 
individuals and as Churches should recog- 




Jubilee Club, St. Paul Normal and Ixdustrial ycHOOL, 
Lawkenceville, Virginia 




Students, Bishop Payne Divinity School, Petersburg, Virginia 



The Next Step: Need and Supply 275 

nize the wisdom of this, and unite with 
them in hastening the day of their deliver- 
ance from those things which have held 
them back from their highest and best. In 
his time of weakness, ignorance, and bitter 
need, the Negro has had the strength and 
wisdom of others to support and guide him. 
He has had the hand of benevolence over- 
flowing with gifts constantly extended to 
him, but he must not linger at the ' ' Beau- 
tiful Gate " of charity; he must heed as a 
clarion voice in the soul the command, " In 
the name of Jesus Christ, arise and walk ! " 
He must stand and walk on his own feet 
and earn his right to a place not only in 
the life and work of this world but in the 
kingdom of God, taking for his watchword, 
'' Saved to serve." Yes, saved to serve 
his own day and generation and to make 
it possible for those who follow to live 
more truly and nobly. Many men and 
women among them are consecrating their 
lives to this saving work for their race, and 
still more are giving to it liberally, not 
only of their abundance, but out of their 

It is well to pause, before we close tins Next step? 
record of the evolution of the Negro race. 



276 The Upward Path 

and consider what shall be the next on- 
ward step toward his full development in 
Christian life. What needs to be done in 
the lines of work begun, and what new ef- 
forts should be put forth? 
Neejof^the That there is a great need of improve- 
ment in the Negro ministry is an evident 
fact. To simply say, " they must be bet- 
ter educated," is an easy way to escape 
the question. Education for the Negro 
preacher means as much as it does for the 
white man; but it is well known that the 
fact of a preacher's being well educated 
does not necessarily give him success in 
dealing with the ignorant mass of the 
people. The education of the Negro 
preacher, especially the man who is to be 
a pastor, must be of such a character as 
will keep him in close sympathetic touch 
with the natural life of the people, so that 
he will know how to " lead on gently " 
these '' little ones " of God's kingdom. 
Knowing their trials, temptations, ignor- 
ance, superstition, and sins, he should use 
a language that they can understand, in 
order to administer comfort and to 
strengthen, teach, and rebuke without driv- 
ing them away by an assumption of su- 



The Next Step: Need and Supply 277 

periority. He should be endued with the 
Spirit and by wisdom spiritually received 
so present the love and purity of the gospel 
and its rewards, both here and hereafter, 
that if the emotional member must shout 
it may be the heart's true expression, 
based upon knowledge of the truth. He 
also needs to know how to discipline his 
flock and deal with flagrant sins impar- 
tially and justly, manifesting hatred of sin 
even while loving the sinner. And his life 
must exemplify his teaching. 

It is not simply education that is needed, §|fu''cS*' °* 
Init education of the right kind. He must 
not only know books, but he must know the 
people. He must not only know the Bible, 
but he must know how to use it as the sword 
of the Spirit, a light to the feet, a 
message of comfort. He must live a right- 
eous life, above reproach. He should have 
business sense, social tact, patience, perse- 
verance, courageous hope, and, above all, 
unfailing love. This is the ideal pastor. 
Yes, and it ought to be the standard to- 
ward which all pastors should aim. The 
ideal Negro preacher should have all those 
qualities of head and heart that the 
priestly office requires of any other race, 



278 The Upward Path 

for he, as all who fill the sacred office, 
stands as an ambassador of God before his 
people and as an example for their lives. 
BeingTaSup Where are such men to be found? God 
is able to raise up Negro men, is raising 
them up, '' called to be apostles " to their 
race, even as he has done at other times for 
other iDcoples, and often where and when 
they were least expected. But it remains 
for those who pray for such *' wise shep- 
herds " to make them ready to feed and 
care for the flock. The men who are at the 
head of their educational institutions and 
theological seminaries need to pray also 
for themselves, that God may help them 
to a better understanding of the Negro 
race and its need, and may give them wis- 
dom to teach their pastors how to meet it. 
^^^Xeded Outside the regular pastorate there is 
another factor of power at work in the 
Church — the Negro evangelists. Some of 
these are of good and some of indifferent 
quality; some are responsible to the 
Church for the character of work done, 
others are responsible only to themselves 
for their work and its results. To enforce 
that which is good and hinder that which is 
bad, there should be missionary evangel- 



The Next Step: Need and Supply 279 

ists prepared for the work and appointed 
to it by mission boards to whom they will 
be responsible and from whom they will 
receive as far as necessary their support. 

These evangelists should be something ^^a^ngeusts 
more than *' heralds " of the gospel, or ex- 
horters to sinners; they should not pass 
hastily from one ignorant church to an- 
other, leaving their converts to slip back 
for lack of instruction in the truth which 
they have accepted. They should be not 
only spiritual men whose lives are above 
reproach, but men well trained in the scrip- 
tural requirements of righteous living, and 
be able to teach its ethics plainly and 
frankly as a rule for the daily life. Be- 
sides the preaching services they should 
hold simple Bible readings, and before 
leaving a community they ought to organ- 
ize Bible study classes in the church, giv- 
ing their leaders very practical instruc- 
tions as to how to continue the work and 
directing them to the proper helps in their 
study. There were evangelists of power 
among the Negroes in the olden times, such 
as " Black Harry " and many others; and 
who that has heard the Bible readings of 
Amanda Smith can doubt that there exist 



280 The Upward Path 

to-day men and women among them who 
are not only " fervent in spirit," but are 
able to teach the deep things of the Spirit, 
and from them, righteous living. 
RS^sIrtPons These evangelistic efforts coupled with 
Bible study should be extended into the ru- 
ral districts, where they are greatly needed 
far more than in the cities, there they would 
be of great value to the ignorant masses 
who can never have the advantage of much 
if any Bible instruction in the schools. The 
pastors would be greatly helped by these 
evangelists in their future work, if they are 
the men that they should be to have charge 
of churches. 
Plantation Wo havc secu liow iu the past a great 

Missions ^ ^ 

work for the Negro was done through what 
was called " plantation missions." Elim- 
inate the fact of bond slavery and on many 
large cotton, sugar, and rice plantations 
to-day many conditions may be found simi- 
lar to those of the past, owing to the pov- 
erty and ignorance of large numbers of 
farm laborers and their families. These 
people need a work done for them some- 
what similar to that which was done for 
their ancestors. They are too ignorant to 
know their own needs, and if they knew 




Women 's JJidle Tkaixjxu Class, Howe Institute, 
Memphis, Tennessee 




St. Mark 's Chapel, Wilson, North Carolina 



The Next Step: Need and Supply 281 

them they are too poor to supply them, as 
they cannot pay the salaries of the right 
kind of i^reachers nor build decent places 
of worship. Although some work is being 
done on plantations, the Church of to-day 
should meet this opportunity as generously 
as it was met by the Church and the mas- 
ters in the past. Let the wisdom and 
money of mission boards of white and col- 
ored Churches unite in establishing planta- 
tion missions by building neat, plain 
churches where they are needed and by 
paying the salaries of missionary workers, . 
men and women, who are consecrated and 
qualified. Put circuits of several planta- 
tions each in charge of men who cannot 
only preach on the Sabbath but teach Bible 
classes and do true, instructive pastoral 
visiting, and a great change for the better 
would be manifest in a few years. 

Here, too, is a large opportunity for the KJ^J^Les and 
colored deaconess or Bible reader to visit Bibie Readers 
and work in the home, to uplift and guide 
the women and girls as no man can. She 
could also hold mothers' meetings, teach 
sewing schools and Bible classes, and in 
many respects prove an angel of mercy as 
well as a teacher of righteousness on many 



282 The Upward Path 

a plantation in the '^ back country.'* 
Ought not the large number of Church 
schools to furnish the women suited to 
such work, and might not the money be ob- 
tained for the specific training which they 
would need? 
City Missions The Ncgro life in the city presents the 
same extremes that are to be found in the 
white urban population. There are the 
richest, best educated, most refined repre- 
sentatives of the race, who have good 
churches and good homes and are not in 
any way to be considered as objects of mis- 
sionary effort. In fact, it is through this 
class that much of the city missionary 
work of the future should be done for the 
redemption of the Negro slums. The sad 
conditions existing in these wretched quar- 
ters do not differ greatly from those exist- 
ing in slums inhabited by white people. 
Methods The kind of work done successfully in 
the Negro slum and the methods used do 
not vary materially from those that have 
been successfully employed for the same 
class of people of other races. The Chris- 
tian settlement and institutional church, 
with all the various forms of service for 
which they stand, would be very effective 



The Next Step: Need and Supply 283 

if properly managed and sustained in both 
Northern and Southern cities. 

Possibly their influence upon the Negro opp'orfunity 
would be more effective than upon any 
other people, for the Negro, even in the 
slums, has not yet become alienated from 
the Church nor has he given up Church at- 
tendance, as is the case with the denizens of 
foreign slums unless they are Roman Cath- 
olics. The Church is still the center of 
his social as well as religious life, and he is 
willing to receive from it instruction and 
direction. The Negro slum is ready for 
the installation of such work in the midst 
of its iDopulation, and the Churches should 
not lose to-day's opportunity to reach the 
hundreds of thousands there who through 
disease, ignorance, and sin are sinking 
lower and lower in the scale of life. ' ' Out 
of the depths " they are crying to the 
Church of God and in the name of God the 
Church should go to their deliverance. 

The methods of accomplishing this work 
must, of course, be fitted to the locality, 
its conditions, and its needs. It will be 
necessary that the missionary be a friend, 
freely admitted into the home, if the home, 
where the need is greatest, is to be bene- 



Kind of Workers 



2S4 The Upward Path 

fited. Admission usually is not difficult 
with this impulsive, affectionate, and in 
many respects unreserved race. Once con- 
vince them that their good is desired, hy 
going about the work kindly and patiently 
with consideration for their feelings, and 
their confidence is gained and their co- 
operation secured. Consecrated, trained, 
colored men and women can do more effec- 
tive missionary work among their own peo- 
ple than can those of another race. 
""l^ncTS?! I^ay nurseries and kindergartens are 
gartens valuable features of institutional work for 
the children of a race where the mother is 
so frequently the breadwinner and away 
from home. They furnish the opportunity 
of impressing moral precepts and religious 
truths upon the child at its most impres- 
sionable age, and of forming habits for 
them of physical cleanliness. They also 
make possible the instruction of the 
mothers in the care of children and in 
maintaining sanitary conditions in their 
homes,^ the lack of which causes infant 
mortality, alarmingly great among Ne- 
groes. 

cSfs'ctef: ^^^'^^S classes for girls (giving them 
and Clubs the garments made by themselves) lead 



The Next Step: Xeed and Supply 285 

to the better making and repairing of com- 
fortable clothing, rather than the purchase 
of ragged, second-hand finery for which so 
much of their money is wasted. Kitchen- 
garden classes have been found especially 
interesting and helpful to half -grown girls 
because this objective teaching appeals to 
them. Cooking schools for older girls and 
women should give plain, practical instruc- 
tion as to the character of foods and their 
preparation in accordance with what their 
condition makes possible. Premiums given 
for well-prepared simple dishes would 
have a good effect by inciting to ambitious 
effort. The result of such instruction 
would be a healthier home for the house- 
keeper and more remunerative employ- 
ment for those who go out to service. 
Clubs for men, women, boys, and girls all 
have their beneficial results here as else- 
where. Playgrounds, miniature farming 
and truck-gardening, gymnasium with, 
bathing facilities, well conducted and with 
proper instruction present most desirable 
preventive missionary work that is both 
destructive of evil and constructive of 
good. 

No missionary work for the Negro can 



286 The Upward Path 

PhyiidMs b® fully successful that does not consider 
his physical condition and seek to alleviate 
his sufferings from preventive diseases by 
teaching sanitation in the home, personal 
cleanliness and chastity of habit, freedom 
from superstitious practises, and the rejec- 
tion of quacks and their nostrums. Of 
course poverty and ignorance will present 
obstacles to such work with the Negro as 
with the lower classes of other races, but 
these can be at least partly overcome by 
the use of right methods and by patience. 
To the foreign field the Church sends mis- 
sionary physicians as well as teachers and 
evangelists, and the same plan should be 
used in the home mission work of the 
Church. There is no phase of home mis- 
sions where this threefold work is more 
needed than among the Negroes. The 
trained Christian Negro as a missionary 
physician would be found invaluable in the 
slums of the cities, in mining camps, on 
IDlantations, and wherever the Negroes are 
congregated. 
Deaconesses and In tlio home aud domestic life lies 

Trained Nurses 

the largest opportunity for the missionary 
doctor as well as pastor. The colored 
deaconess and trained nurse also have here 



The Next Step: Need and Supply 287 
I 
a great and effectual door waiting wide 
open for their Christ-like ministry to the 
sorrowing, the suffering, and the erring. 
Many aching hearts among the poor, hard- 
working colored women, cowering under 
almost insupportable burdens, are await- 
ing the word of sympathy and hope to save 
them from despair and sin. Many there 
are, too, who must suffer and die and see 
their loved ones suffer and die because 
they are ignorant of those things that re- 
late to health and the care of the sick, 
knowledge that a nurse could impart. 
There are many young girls and older 
women whom the hand and prayer of the 
deaconess might keep from the path of sin, 
or lead back if their feet have already 
strayed. 

From whence are the workers for this who win do 

this work? 

the greatest home mission enterprise to 
come? Where else but from the Church 
schools and colleges for Negroes now being 
maintained largely by the Home Mission 
Boards. If the principals and teachers 
of these institutions are truly missionary 
in spirit, as they should be and as many 
of them are, they will instil the same spirit 
into their pupils and lead them to conse- 



288 The Upward Path 

crate their lives to the saving and uplifting 
of their people. 
sSitul?*Tr1ith III ^11 1^^ schools thcro should be a regu- 
and Ethics |^^ thorough study of the Bible of such a 
character as will not only give literary, his- 
torical, and geographical information, but 
a knowledge of its spiritual truths and 
ethical lessons. The Bible so taught will 
not only be ** a savor of life unto life " to 
the pupils, but make them men and women 
'^ prepared unto every good word and 
work," when they go back to their homes 
to be teachers in the Sunday-schools and 
Bible study circles and to become mission- 
aries. It will give a rock basis on which 
men and women may build their profes- 
sional education, whether it be as 
preacher, teacher, physician, deaconess, or 
nurse. It will be as grappling-irons hold- 
ing the business man to honest dealings. 
It will be a strong wall around the Negro 
home and a shield to the virtue of woman. 
*' My word . . . shall not return unto me 
void, . . . but it shall prosper in the thing 
whereto I sent it," is God's promise. 
Whites Must While much of this missionary work can 

Continue to Help '' 

best be done by the Negroes for their own 
people now, and the promise is bright for 



The Next Step: Need and Supply 289 

still more to be done by them in the future, 
with their fuller training, the time has not 
yet come for the white race to cease its 
help; nor will it come until we have done 
still more to develop this " backward 
race," which by a strange providence has 
been placed in the reach of our helping 
hand. There rests upon us the debt always 
due from the strong to the weak. White 
mission boards and white philanthropists 
North and South must continue yet longer 
to give to and guide the work of educating 
and Christianizing " our brother in black." 
At the same time they must be taught that 
self-help is the best help, and be encouraged 
and stimulated to continued and larger ef- 
forts for their own race. 

In the annals of the Church and philan- |^2the?n ivien 
thropy not much recognition has been giv- *"'' ^'""^" 
en to the purely local work which has been 
done and is being done by Southern men 
and women to aid the Negro along every 
line of his progress. Possibly this is be- 
cause they have not exploited this work, 
but have set it down to the score of indi- 
vidual love and personal interest rather 
than made a church record of it. It would 
be difficult to find a Negro church, school. 



290 The Upward Path 

orphanage, hospital, or any other institu- 
tion projected by them to which Southern 
white people have not contributed by as- 
sisting either in its building or mainte- 
nance. There is a continued outflow to 
them of benevolence in various forms from 
the white home, church societies, and pub- 
lic charities. 
A'^Jo^.^hite In many Southern cities the white min- 

Ministry .... 

istry is aiding the colored ministry in 
presenting the gospel in their pulpits when- 
ever opportunity offers, and such oppor- 
tunities are not rare. In many instances 
they give practical and valuable aid to pas- 
tors in their studies and preparation of 
sermons, with wholesome advice as to 
church methods and discipline. More of 
this work perhaps should be done, but 
those who understand fully the present 
situation will appreciate the many difficul- 
ties in the way. Here, too, it is to be hoped 
that the future holds many possibilities of 
brotherly help not now existing. 
^^''i-lymenVnd Christian laymen and women also have 
Women ^ large local opportunity to help the col- 
ored people by teaching Sunday afternoon 
Bible classes, and in aiding them to plan 
and conduct various lines of work for so- 



The Next Step: Need and Supply 291 

cial and religious betterment, nor have 
they been neglectful of this opportunity. 
Large classes are being taught in the 
churches, and smaller bands of Sunday- 
school teachers and Christian workers are 
being instructed in private homes. There 
is also a great volume of personal Chris- 
tian work and industrial training done for 
those who come into homes as domestic 
servants. 

That Southern white Christians ought to ^Puth*"""^ "^ 
do much more in these lines is undoubtedly 
true of them, as of those who have the 
same opjDortunity in other sections for 
other races. They know, though others 
may not, how truly and nobly their parents 
worked for the civilizing and Christianiz- 
ing of the Negro slaves. The providence 
of God continues to entrust the fate of the 
Negro to the South. The South cannot es- 
cape the trust if it would; it should not 
want to escape it if it could. A large num- 
ber of its people are trying to fulfil nobly 
their duty to the Negro of to-day amid 
many hindrances. In doing this there will 
come a better knowledge, each of the other, 
on the best side, and a bettering of each 
other, because this Christly connection in 



292 The Upward Path 

Christian work will bring closer together 
those of both races who truly love their 
Lord^ 
Hope Ahead The presencG of two great races in our 
land, living a close yet divided existence, 
presents a unique situation in the history 
of the world. That there should be antag- 
onism and prejudice one toward the other 
is natural, since by nature they belong to 
the two divisions of the human family 
most diverse in racial qualities and tradi- 
i tions. That there should be so little con- 
\ ilict and so much personal kindliness is the 
\ marvel of those who look upon the situa- 
tion from the outside. The spirit of help- 
fulness in the stronger race has been dem- 
onstrated by unnumbered deeds of active 
benevolence. These have been acknowl- 
edged by the less developed race with 
grateful appreciation. Satisfactory re- 
sults for the latter are manifested in the 
fruits of industrial advancement, growing 
patriotism, mental activity, and a broader 
Christianity, and through and by it all 
there is a development of power from 
within, leading to a self-dependence and 
self-reliance that will require less and less 
from without. \ This gain for the one does 



f 



v_ 



^ 



The Next Step: Need and Supply 293 

not mean loss for the other, but additional 
gain. There have been many places along 
the way which they have traveled together 
where an Ebenezer might have been set up, 
proclaiming to the world, " Hitherto hath 
Jehovah helped us." 

AVhat is known as the Negro problem Sffe^e'd"""" 
has been in the minds of the readers of this 
book as they scanned its every chapter. 
No attempt has been made to solve that 
problem, nor can any solution that has ever 
been offered be accepted as of value. It 
must be left to the prophets and statesmen 
yet to arise in both races who, with an all- 
wise, all-loving Heavenly Father, must 
work together to accomplish his divine will 

foi* the race. 

That there is a serious problem none can The coior une 
deny. Every race has its problems of exist- 
ence and development, as has every indi- 
vidual life in all its relations and efforts, 
and no race, as no man, liveth to itself or 
for itself alone. No real problem is sim- 
ple, and in its complexity it should be 
fairly estimated from every side. It must 
be remembered that the Negro problem is 
the Southern white man's problem as well, 
and the latter has rights to be considered 



294 The Upward Path 

as well as the former — rights that pertain 
to the man as an individual and also to his 
race life. 
'""'^QueSons ^^* ^^^ Negro problem involves much 
more than the color line. It presents anew 
the old questions of evangelization and 
education, labor and capital, poverty and 
crime, that are clamoring for answer all 
over the world. When these problems 
have received a just and righteous solu- 
tion, not much of the Negro problem will 
be left to solve. 
RS'DemaSded Whatever the problem that exists, it 
involves both races at the North and at the 
South, and its solution cannot be accom- 
plished by one race. It must be a dual 
work, not done separately but unitedly, 
with mutual trust and effort. It will re- 
quire love and sacrifice from both, and also 
truth and justice from both. It will de- 
mand the highest, sanest thought of the 
trained and developed intellect of the two 
races to grasp and conjointly master the 
situation with all its complex conditions. 
It will require all the heroic courage and 
martyr faith of which both races are cap- 
able to struggle and faint not until the vic- 
tory shall come, as come it surely will. 



The Next Step: Need and Supply 295 

How any great national or religious Jj-glje'h 
problem is to be worked out through the 
years, God who works in us and through us 
alone knows. But that he has worked 
hitherto and is still working through us to 
accomplish his will for both races is mani- 
fest. The great processes by which it is to 
come are already in motion and their mo- 
mentum is increasing. The future is hidden 
from us, but faith sees beyond the veil and 
triumphantly cries, '' The Lord our God, 
the Almighty reigneth. ' ' Not by chance but 
by his hand the world was made, and those 
that dwell upon it. By his hand does he 
sustain and guide the sun in its course, and 
by his hand the life of humanity in its de- 
velopment is directed step by step ever 
toward himself. All history proves this to 
be true in the past, and the God-implanted 
aspirations within us demand its truth for 
the future. This truth has in it the very 
essence of God's nature, and is too broad 
and deep to be restricted to one world in 
his universe, far less to one race in our 
world. God's truth means a justice to all 
that will not brook that any race be 
counted out of the great law of love which 
is over all for the good of all. 



296 The Upward Path 

A Vision I stood at an open window and looked 
xipon an extended landscape. The sum- 
mer sky was overspread with heavy clouds 
that cast dark shadows on all around me, 
making nature's beauty dim. But looking 
out beyond I saw far ahead the sunshine 
lying golden on a distant mountain. 
Watching with glad expectancy, I saw the 
clouds with their shadows gradually roll- 
ing back, and the sunlit space widening and 
drawing ever nearer and nearer, until at 
last the whole land was flooded with its 
radiance. The sun looked down upon me — 
the clouds had passed away. 
"Wait^Thou^for Courage, doubting heart! Hope on, 
trusting heart, whether thou beatest in a 
white or black breast! The clouds have 
hung low, they still overshadow us in the 
present; but behind the clouds the Sun of 
Righteousness has light for the world. 
The joy of his redeeming presence draweth 
ever nearer, the clouds are rolling away, 
for with him there is light and life forever- 
more. ' ' Wait for Jehovah : be strong, and 
let thy heart take courage ; yea, wait thou 
for Jehovah. ' ' 



The Next Step: Need and Supply 297 



SUGGESTED QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VIII 

Aim : To Realize the Present Needs and Opportunity 
FOR Christian Service Among the Negroes 

1.* Contrast the social and religious life of the 

Negro in Africa and the United States to-day. 
2. Has his experience in this country been a help 

to him? 
3.* Has he made any contribution to the social 

and industrial life of our country? Discuss 

fully. 

4. Does the United States need the Negro, and 
why? 

5. Estimate the progress that the Negro has made, 
industrially, socially and religiously. 

6. What help in the upward path has the Negro 
had that the Anglo-Saxon did not have? 

7. Do you believe the Negro as a race is capable 
of still further progress, and why? 

8. In what directions and where do you consider 
the greatest opportunity for progress? 

9.* What types of schools would you recommend, 
and by what agencies should they be directed? 

10. What kind of leaders are most needed? 

11. By whom are these leaders to be trained? 

12. What types of religious leaders are most 
needed ? 

13. Where do you think there is the greatest re- 
ligious need at the present time? 

14. Are the needs among the Negroes in our 
cities any greater than among the poor of other 
races? 

15.* Are our obligations any greater to the Negro 
than to the aliens? Give reasons. 

16.* Upon whom does the responsibility for mis- 
sions to Negroes rest most heavily, and why? 



298 The Upward Path 

17.* Do you know of any greater home mission op- 
portunity, in population, and in proximity? 

18. Do you know of any more responsive people 
than the Negroes? 

19. What is your personal responsibility? 

Eeferences for Further Study. — Chapter VIII 
TTie Future of the Negro 

Baker: Following the Color Line, XIV. 
Conant: " Future of the Negro," Arena, July, 
'09. 

Hart: " Outcome of the Southern Eace Ques- 
tion," North American Bevietv, July, '08. 
Merriam: The Negro and the Nation, XL. 
Miller: Eace Adjustment, 133-151. 
Page: The Negro: The Southerner's Problem, 
VIII. 

Price: The Negro, XXIX. 
Stone: Studies in the American Eace Problem, 
Part V, Ch. III. 

Washington: The Future of the American Ne- 
gro, I- VIII. 



APPENDIXES 



APPENDIX A 

HYMN 

O li'l lamb out in de col', 
De Mastah call you to de f ol ', 

O li'l lamb! 
He hyeah you bleatin' ob de hill; 
Come hyeah an' keep yo' mou'ning still, 

O li'l lamb! 

De Mastah sen' de shepud fo'f; 
He wandah souf, he wandah no'f, 

O li'l lamb! 
He wandah eas', he wandah wes'; 
De win' a-wrenchin' at his breas', 

O li'l lamb! 

Oh, tell de shepud whaih you hide; 
He want you walkin' by his side, 

O li'l lamb! 
He know you weak, he know you so'; 
But come, don' stay away no mo', 

O li'l lamb! 

An af'ah while de lamb he hyeah 

De shepud 's voice a-eallin ' cleah — 

Sweet li'l lamb! 

He answah f'om de brambles thick, 

' ' O Shepud, I 's a-comin ' quick ' '— 

O li'l lamb! 

— Paul Lawrence Dunbar 

Prom Lyrics of tJie Eearthstone. 



302 The Upward Path 



APPENDIX B 
NEGRO MELODIES* 

They believed in God as the maker and ruler of all 
things and sang: 

"He is King of kings; 

He is Lord of lords; 

No man works like him." 

His omnipresence and close knowledge of our daily 
lives was expressed in: 

" Oh, he sees all you do, 
He hears all you say." 

They believed in Jesus as the atoning Son of God, and 
sang: 

" Ever see such a man as God? 

He gave up his Son for to come an' die, 

Gave up his Son for to come and die, 

Just to save my soul from a burning fire." 

They saluted him as their King: 

" Eeign, er reign, er reign, my Savior, 
Eeign Mass' Jesus er reign." 

They expressed their deep love as they sang: 

" Oh, when I come to die. 

Give me Jesus, give me Jesus, give me Jesus, 

You may have all the world, but give me Jesus." 

With voices trembling with unsimulated grief, they 
sang of his death: 

1 The author Is indebted to Proctor, " The Southern Workman," 
November, 1907, for some suggestions on these melodies. 



Appendixes 303 

" Were you there when they crucified my Lord? 
Were you there when they nailed him to a tree? 
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, trem- 
ble." 

They believed in the Holy Spirit. No one could be a 
Christian without the " witness of the Spirit "; no one 
could preach without a revelation of the Spirit; no 
meeting could be successful without an outpouring of the 
Spirit clearly manifested. They sang: 

" When Peter was preachin' at Pentecost, 
He was filled with the Holy Ghost," 

and again: 

" If you want to ketch that heavenly breeze, 
Go down in the v?illey on yer knees. 
Go bow your knees upon de groun' 
An' ax de Lord ter turn yer roun'. " 

At the height of a camp-meeting sermon their song 
leader will sing out: 

"Oh, I feel de Spirit a-movin'." 

and the audience will respond: 

" Don't get weary, 

Bar's a great camp-meetin' in de Promus Lan'." 

They believed in repentance for sin and forgiveness in 
response to confession. Could a more pathetic expression 
be given of the loneliness of a soul that feels cut off 
by sin from God than in the song, " I couldn't hear 
nobody pray "? 

Longing to grow in grace in seeing the inch worm 



304 The Upward Path 

measuring its way along slowly on the ground, some poet- 
moralist saw it as a symbol of Christian growth: 

" 'Twas inch by inch I sought the Lord, 

Jesus will come by and by, 
An' inch by inch he blessed my soul, 

Jesus will come by and by. 

Chorus : 

Keep a inehin ' along, keep a inchin ' along, 

Jesus will come by and by, 
Keep a inchin' along like the poor inch worm, 

Jesus will come by and by. ' ' 

They believed in and sang of the practical Christian 
virtues : 

" Go read the fifth of Matthew, 
An' read the chapter through; 

It is a guide for Christians, 
An' it tells 'em what ter do." 

Again : 

" You say you're aimin' fer de skies; 
Why don't you stop yer tellin' lies? 
You say de Lord has set you free; 
Why don't you let yer neighbor be?" 

Again : 

" Watch that sun, how steady she come, 
Don't let her ketch ye wid yer work undone." 

They wanted and prayed to be holy, and knew it must 
be through love: 

** Oh, make a-me holy, holy, I do love, I do love; 
Make a-me holy, holy, I do love, I do love de Lord. ' ' 



Appendixes 305 

They believed in heaven, and with exulting joy in the 
blessed life that would be their portion, they expressed 
their determined resolve to get there: 

" Let my steps be many er few, 

By an' by, by an' by; 
I mean ter keep heaven in view, 
By an' by, by an' by. 

" Oh, when the storms of life are over, 
We shall anchor in the harbor, 

We will praise our God forever, 
By an' by, by an' by." 

They triumphed over *' Jordan's stream, so chilly an' 
cole, ' ' when they sang : 

" I looked over Jordan, an' what did I see, 

Comin' fer ter carry me home? 
A band of angels, comin' after me, 

Comin' fer ter carry me home. 

Chorus : 

Swing low, sweet chariot, 

Comin' fer ter carry me home." 

Within the ' ' pearly gates ' ' of the heavenly city they 
will " lay down my heavy load," and walk " de golden 
streets," " all robed in white," meeting with sainted 
fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers, whom the " pale 
horse an' rider have taken away," and with whom they 
will dwell in " de manshuns in de skies." 

They felt a keen sense of pleasure in the defeat their 
redemption brings to Satan, whom they described as a 
" liar and a conjurer too ": 

01' Satan's mad an' I am glad; 
That 's what Satan 's a-grumblin ' about ; 



( ( 



306 The Upward Path 

He missed that soul he thought he had, 
That 's what Satan 's a-grumblin ' about. ' ' 

They accepted the great commission to deliver the 
gospel message to others: 

" I'll take my gospel trumpet, 

An' I'll begin to blow, 
An' if my Savior helps me 

I '11 blow wherever I go. ' ' 

They exhorted others : 

" Go an' tell everybody, 

Yes, Jesus is risen from the dead. ' ' 

The sinner is plead with in their revival meetings: 
" Sinner, please don't let this harvest pass, 
An' die an' lose your soul at las'." 

He is encouraged to come to Jesus : 
" Come on, mourner, make a bound, 
De Lord will meet you on half-way ground." 

He is warned of the terrible judgment day lest he 
should be among those that cry out: 

' ' Kocks an ' mountains, please fall on me. ' ' 

They believed in the angels, especially " Gabriel and 
his trumpet," and the " angel band " that carried them 
to heaven on wings " tipped with gold." Their songs 
also are filled with references to Bible incidents and 
characters that testify to their acquaintance vrith the 
Word of God and also to their ability to draw practical 
lessons from it. Noah and the ark prefigure salvation 
and safety in the Church. Moses, chosen by God to lead 
his people out of bondage, is an especial favorite, and 
they claimed the deliverence of the Israelites as a 
promise of their own liberation: 



Appendixes 307 

' * Our bondage '11 have an end by an ' by. 
Jehovah rules de tide an' de water he'll divide, 
Oh, de vpay he'll open wide, 
By an' by, by an' by." 

" Little David," who played on his harp and " killed 
Goliath, ' ' is emblematic of the Christian 's conquest over 
sin ; as is also * ' Joshua the son of Nun, ' ' who ' ' never 
would quit till the work was done. ' ' Jonah is used as a 
warning to those who refuse to preach when called. 
Daniel, cast in the lions' den on account of his praying 
habit and delivered by the Lord, was a familiar subject 
in their preaching, and of him they sang: 

" Dan'l wuz a prayin' man; 

He pray three times er day; 
De Lord he hist de winder 

Fer to hear po' Dan'l pray." 

They sympathized with " weepin' Mary " and 
" doubtin' Thomas," and alluded to all the apostles by 
name. John and his apocalyptic visions were of the 
deepest interest to them and they exhort him: 

" Tell all the world, John, 

' I know de odder world's not like this'." 

It is needless to say that with the educated classes 
these melodies are regarded as relics of the past, and 
that with perhaps a few exceptions they have no place 
in their religious services of to-day. They use instead 
the same hymns and gospel songs that are used by white 
congregations, some of the latter having not as much 
music or religion as those they have discarded. 



308 The Upward Path 

APPENDIX C 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 

No attempt has been made to provide a complete 
bibliography on the Negro. So many books, pamphlets, 
and articles have been written that only the most recent 
relating to the contents of the book are included. The 
alphabetical order has been adopted so as to avoid dis- 
crimination of any kind, as the view-point of South- 
erner, Northerner, and Negro is presented in the list. 

The Negro in Africa 

Dowd: The Negro Eaees. 1907. The Macmillan Co., 
New York. $2.50, net. 

Nassau: Fetichism in West Africa. 1904. Charles 
Scribner'a Sons, New York. $2.50, net. 

Naylor: Daybreak in the Dark Continent. 1908. Young 
People's Missionary Movement, New York. 50 
cents, net. 

Parsons: Christus Liberator. 1905. The Macmillan Co., 
New York. 50 cents, net. 

Historical and General 

Dyer: Democracy in the South Before the Civil War. 
1905. Smith & Lamar, Nashville. $1.00. 

Harrison and Barnes: The Gospel Among the Slaves. 
1893. Smith & Lamar, Nashville. $1.25. 

Murphy: Problems of the Present South. 1909. Long- 
mans, Green & Co., New York. $1.50, net. 

Montgomery: Vital American Problems. 1908. G. P. 
Putnam's Sons, New York. $1.50, net. 



Appendixes 309 

stone: Studies in the American Eaee Problem. 1908. 
Doubleday, Page & Co., New York. $2.00. 

Williams: History of the Negro Race in America, 1619- 
1880. 1882. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. 
$4.00. 

The Negro in the United States 

Baker: Following the Color Line. 1908. Doubleday, 
Page & Co., New York. $2.00, net. 

Cable: Negro Question. 1890. Charles Scribner's 
Sons, New York. 75 cents. 

Du Bois: Souls of the Black Folk. 1907. A. C. McClurg 
& Co., Chicago. $1.20. 

Merriam: The Negro and the Nation. 1906. Henry 
Holt & Co., New York. $1.75, net. 

Miller: Race Adjustment. 1908. Neale Publishing Co., 
Washington. $2.00, net. 

Morgan: The Negro in America, and the Ideal Amer- 
ican Republic. 1898. American Baptist Publi- 
cation Society, Philadelphia. $1.00. 

Page: The Negro: The Southerner's Problem. 1904. 
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $1.25, net. 

Shannon: Racial Integrity. 1907. Smith & Lamar, 

Nashville. $1.25. 
Sinclair: The Aftermath of Slavery. 1905. Small, 

Maynard & Co., Boston. $1.50. 
Smith : The Color Line. 1905. Doubleday, Page & Co., 

New York. $1.50, net. 
Thomas: The American Negro. 1901, The Macmillan 

Co., New York. $2.00, net. 



310 The Upward Path 

Washington: The Future of the American Negro. 1907. 
Small, Maynard & Co., Boston. $1.50. 

Washington: Character Building. 1902. Doubleday, 
Page & Co., New York. $1.50, net. 

Washington: Up from Slavery. 1900. Doubleday, Page 
& Co., New York. $1.50, net. 

Washington: Frederick Douglass. 1906. George W. 
Jacobs & Co., Philadelphia. $1.25, net. 

Whipple: Negro Neighbors. 1907. Woman's American 
Baptist Home Missionary Society, Boston. 50 
cents, net. 

Washington: The Negro in Business. 1907. Hertel, 
Jenkins & Co., Boston. $1.50. 

Washington and Du Bois: The Negro in the South. 
1907. George W. Jacobs & Co., Philadelphia. 
$1.00. 

Negro Songs and Stories 

Avary: Dixie After the War. 1906. Doubleday, Page 
& Co., New Y^ork. $2.75, net. 

Chesnutt: The Wife of His Youth. 1899. Houghton, 
Mifflin & Co., New York. $1.50. 

Dunbar: Poems of Cabin and Field. 1899. Dodd, Mead 
& Co., New York. $1.50, net. 

Dunbar: Lyrics of Lowly Life. 1908. Dodd, Mead & 
Co., New York. $1.00, net. 

Gordon and Page: Befo' de War. Echoes of Negro 
Dialect. 1888. Charles Seribner's Sons, New 
York. $1.00. 



Appendixes 311 

Harris: The Tar-Baby, and Other Rhymes of Uncle 
Remus. 1904. D. Appleton & Co., New York. 
$2.00, net. 

Harris: Told by Uncle Remus; New Stories of the Old 
Plantation. 1905. Doubleday, Page & Co., New 
York. $2.00. 

Harris : Uncle Remus, His Songs and Sayings. 1902. D. 
Appleton & Co., New York. $2.00. 

Hobson: In Old Alabama; being the Chronicles of Miss 
Mouse, the Little Black Merchant. 1903. Double- 
day, Page & Co., New York. $1.50. 

Page: In Ole Virginia. 1887. Charles Scribner's Sons, 
New York. $1.25. 

Price: The Negro, Past, Present and Future. 1907. 
Neale Publishing Co., Washington. $1.50. 

Pyrnelle: Diddie, Dumps and Tot. 1882. Harper & 
Brothers, New York. 60 cents. 

Stanton: Songs from Dixie Land. 1900. Bobbs-Mer- 
rill Co., Indianapolis. $1.25. 

Weeden: Bandanna Ballads, including " Shadows on the 
Wall," verses and pictures. Introduction by 
Joel Chandler Harris. 1899, Doubleday, Page 
& Co., New York. $1.00, net. 

Weeden: Songs of the Old South. 1900. Doubleday, 
Page & Co., New York. $1.50, net. 

Work : Jubilee Songs. Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn. 

Magazine Articles 

Baker: " The Negro in Southern City Life." Ameri- 
can Magazine, March, 1907. 



312 The Upward Path 

Baker : ' ' Negro Conditions in the Black Belt. ' ' Ameri- 
can Magazine, July, 1907; August, 1907. 

Baker : ' ' Negro Eace Eiot, Atlanta, 1906. ' ' American 
Magazine, April, 1907; May, 1907. 

Baker: " What to do About the American Negro." 
American Magazine, September, 1908. 

Baker: " The Conflict of the Negro in Dealing with the 
Eace Problem." American Magazine, May, 1908. 

Baker: " Negroes in the North." American Magazine, 
February, 1908. 

Baker: " Opportunities of the Negro." American 
Magazine, June, 1908. 

Baker: " Negroes in Politics." American Magazine, 
June, 1908. 

Baker: ** Power of the Negro in the South." Ameri- 
can Magazine, July, 1908. 

Bonham: " Emigration to Settle the Negro Question." 
Education, April, 1908. 

Bousal: " The Negro Soldier in War and Peace." 
North American Review, June 7, 1907. 

Bratton: " The Christian South and the Education of 
the Negro." Sewanee Review, July, 1908. 

Bumstead: " The Ballot as a Whip." Independent, 
June 11, 1908. 

Conant: " Future of the Negro." Arena, July, 1908. 

Cooley: " Negroes of the Sea Islands." Outlook, Octo- 
ber 24, 1908. 

Fleming : * ' Jefferson Davis and the Negroes. ' ' Setva- 
nee Magazine, October, 1908. 



Appendixes 313 

Galloway: " The Negro as a Business Man." World's 
WorTc, June, 1908. 

Garner: " Recent Agitation of the Negro in the South.'- 
South Atlantic Quarterly, June, 1908. 

Gilman: " Negroes: A Suggestion on the Problem." 
American Journal of Sociology, July, 1908. 

Gladden: " The Negro Crisis." American Magazine, 
January, 1907. 

Hart: " Outcome of the Southern Eace Question." 
North American Eeview, July, 1908. 

Ingersoll: " Negro Plot in New York in 1741." Green 
Bag, February, 1908. 

Jelks : ' ' The Acuteness of the Negro Problem ; A Sug- 
gested Remedy." North American Beview, Feb- 
ruary 15, 1907. 

Johnston: " Negroes: How to Make Them Work." 
Nineteenth Century, January, 1908. 

Jones: "A Eace in the Making." Westminster Be- 
vieio, April, 1907. 

Livingstone : ' ' West Indian and United States Negro ; 

A Contrast." North American Beview, July 19, 

1907. 
Minor: " Separate Cars for Negroes." Nation, August 

1, 1907. 
Moore: " Negroes in the Army of the Eevolution." 

Magazine of History, 1908. 

Moton: "Negroes' Uphill Climb." World's Work, 
April, May, August, 1907. 

Northern: " The Negro Situation: One Way Out 
World To-Day, September, 1907. 



)) 



314 The Upward Path 

Page: " The Negro Question." McClure's Magazine, 
March, 1907. 

Park : ' ' Agricultural Extension Among the Negroes. ' ' 
World To-Day, August, 1908. 

Percy : " A Southern View of Education of the Negro. ' ' 
OutlooTc, August 3, 1907. 

Smith: " An Uplifting Negro Cooperative Society," 
World's Work, July, 1908. 

Stone: " Race Friction." American Journal of Soci- 
ology, March, 1908. 

Summers: " Negro Town in Illinois." Independent, 
August 27, 1908. 

"The Negro and Justice." Independent, October 17, 
1907. 

Ward: " Negro Exhibition at Jamestown, 1907." In- 
dependent, November 14, 1907. 

Washington: " American Negro of To-day." Putnam's 
Magazine, October, 1907. 

Washington: " A Negro College Town." World's 
Work, September, 1907. 

Washington: " A Town Owned by Negroes." World's 
Work, July, 1907. 

Washington: " Negro Homes." Century Magazine, 
May, 1908. 

Washington: " Education of the Man Behind the 
Plow." Independent, April 23, 1908. 

Wells: " Negro Eace Prejudice." Independent, Feb- 
ruary 14, 1907. 




> B ■ 



liii 



APPENDIX F 

Negro population, and per cent. Negro in total population, 1900. 



STATE OR TERRITORY IN ORDER OF DECREAS- 
ING PER CENT. NEGRO IN TOTAL 
POPULATION. 



Mississippi 

South Carolina 

Louisiana 

Georgia 

Alabama 

Florida 

Virginia 

North Carolina 

District of Columbia. 

Arkansas 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Maryland. . 

Delaware 

Kentucky 

Indian Territory. . . . 

Missouri 

Oklahoma 

West Virginia 

New Jersey 

Kansas. 



Pennsylvania 

Indiana 

Ohio 

Rhode Island 

Illinois 

Connecticut 

Colorado 

Arizona 

New York 

Massachusetts. . . 

Wyoming 

New Mexico 

California 

Michigan 

Iowa 

Montana 

Nebraska 

Washington 

Minnesota 

Nevada 

Oregon 

Idaho 

Maine . . 

New Hampshire. 

Utah 

Vermont 

North Dakota. . . 
South Dakota. . . 
Wisconsin 



Negro 
popula- 
tion: 
1900. 



907,630 
782,321 
650,804 
,034,813 
827,307 
230,730 
660,722 
624,469 
86,702 
366,856 
480,243 
620,722 
235,064 
30,697 
284,706 
36,8.53 
161,234 
18.831 
43,499 
69,844 
52,003 
156,845 
57,.505 
96,901 
9,092 
85,078 
15,226 
8,570 
1,848 
99,232 
31,974 
940 
1,610 
11,045 
15,816 
12,693 
1,523 
6,269 
2,514 
4,959 
134 
1,105 
293 
1,319 
662 
672 
826 
286 
465 
2,542 



Per cent. 
Negro 
in total 
popula- 
tion : 1900. 



.=i8. 


5 


58. 


4 


47. 


1 


46. 


7 


45. 


2 


43. 


7 


35. 


6 


33. 





31. 


1 


28 





23. 


8 


20. 


4 


19. 


8 


16. 


6 


13. 


3 


9 


4 


5 


2 


4 


7 


4 


5 


3 


7 


3 


5 


2 


5 


2 


3 


2 


3 


9 


1 




3 




7 




6 




5 




.4 




.1 










.8 





.7 





.7 





.6 





.6 





.6 





.5 





.3 





3 





.3 





.2 





.2 





2 


€ 


.2 


c 


.2 


c 


.1 


c 


.1 





.1 



1 Negroes in the United States, Bulletin 8. 



APPENDIX G 



Number and per rent, distribution of Negro population of continental 
United States, by State or Territory of residence, 1900.' 



STATE OR TERRITORY IN ORDER 

OF DECREASING NUMBER 

OF NEGROES 



Continental United States, 

Georgia 

Mississippi 

Alabama 

South Carolina 

Virginia 

Louisiana 

North Carolina 

Texas 

Tennessee 

Arkansas 

Kentucky 

Maryland 

Florida 

Missouri 

Pennsylvania 

New York 

Ohio 

District of Columbia 

Illinois 

New Jersey 

Indiana 

Kansas 

West Virginia 

Indian Territory 

Massachusetts 

Delaware 

Oklahoma 

Michigan 

Connecticut 

Iowa 

California 

Rhode Island 

Colorado 

Nebraska 

Minnesota 

Wisconsin 

Washington 

Arizona 

New Mexico 

Montana 

Maine 

Oregon 

Wyoming 

Vermont 

Utah 

New Hampshire 

South Dakota 

Idaho 

North Dakota 

Nevada 



Negro 
popula- 
tion: 
1900. 



8,833,994 



,034,813 

907,630 

827,307 

782,321 

660,722 

650,804 

624,469 

620,722 

480,243 

366,856 

284,706 

235,064 

230,730 

161,234 

156,845 

99,232 

96,901 

86,702 

85,078 

69,844 

57,505 

52,003 

43,499 

36,853 

31,974 

30,697 

18,831 

15,816 

15,226 

12,693 

11,045 

9,092 

8,570 

6,269 

4,959 

2,542 

2,514 

1,848 

1,610 

1,523 

1,319 

1,105 

940 

826 

672 

662 

465 

293 

286 

134 



Per cent, of 
Negro pop- 
ulation of 
continental 

United 
States liv- 
ing in speci- 
fied State 
or Terri- 
tory: 1900. 



100.0 



Total of per 

cents in 

column 2, 

to and 

including 

specified 

State. 



11.7 


11.7 


10.3 


22.0 


9.4 


31.4 


8.9 


40.3 


7.5 


47.8 


7.4 


55.2 


7.1 


62.3 


7.0 


69.3 


5.4 


74.7 


4.2 


78.9 


3.2 


82.1 


2.7 


84.8 


2.6 


87.4 


1.8 


89.2 


1.8 


91.0 


1.1 


92.1 


1.1 


93.2 


1.0 


94.2 


1.0 


95.2 


0.8 


96.0 


0.6 


96.6 


0.6 


97.2 


0.5 


97.7 


0.4 


98.1 


0.4 


98.5 


0.3 


98.8 


0.2 


99.0 


0.2 


99.2 


0.2 


99.4 


0.1 


99.5 


0.1 


99.6 


0.1 


99.7 


0.1 


99.8 


0.1 


99.9 


0.1 


100.0 


(2) 


100.0 


(2) 


100 


(2) 


100.0 


C-) 


100.0 


(2) 


100.0 


(2) 


100 


(») 


100.0 


(2) 


100 


(*) 


100.0 


(-) 


100.0 


(2) 


100.0 


(*) 


100.0 


(2) 


100.0 


(=*) 


100.0 


(2) 


100.0 



' Negroes in the United States, Bulletin 8. 
2 Less than one-tenth of 1 per cent. 



Appendixes 



319 



APPENDIX H 



Total population, Negro population, per cent. Negro, and per cent, 
distribution, for physiographic divisions, 1900.' 





1900 


PHYSIOGRAPHIC 
DIVISION. 


Total pop- 
ulation. 


Negro pop- 
ulation. 


Per 

cent. 

Negro 

ia 

total 
popu- 
lation. 


Per cent, 
of the Ne- 
gro pop- 
ulation of 
continen- 
tal United 

States 
living in 
specified 
division. 


Continental United 
States 


75,994,575 


8,833,994 


11.6 


100.0 


New England hills 


10,260,153 
1,865,952 

6,427,635 
6,809,103 
4,499,072 
6,070,246 
9,571,215 
8,129,760 

1,227,094 

13,300,970 

1,203,880 

1,974,677 
1,052,719 
592,972 
356,758 
375,345 
201,669 
995,363 
1,079,992 


137,553 
795,155 

2,972,269 

1,818,732 

236,782 

189,267 

70,640 

628,371 

771,486 

466,416 

57,478 

654,567 
13,402 
4,016 
1,471 
881 
2,428 
5,409 
7,671 


1.4 
42.6 

46.3 
26.7 
5.3 
3.1 
0.8 
7.7 

62.9 
3.5 

4.8 

33.2 
1.3 
0.7 
0.4 
0.2 
1.2 
0.6 
0.7 


1.6 
9.0 


Coastal plain (east of 
Mississippi river) .... 

Piedmont region 

Appalachian valley 

A legheny plateau 

Tjake reo'ion 


33.6 

20.6 

2.7 

2.1 

0.8 


Interior timbered region 
Mississippi alluvial re- 
gion 


7.1 

8.7 




5.3 


Ozark hills 


0.7 


Coastal plain (west of 
Mississippi river) 


7.4 
0.2 


Rocky Mountain' 

Columbian mesas 

Great basin 


C-) 

(2) 




^'K , 


Pacific vallev 


0.1 


Coast ranges 


0.1 







1 Negroes in the United States, Bulletin 8. 
* Less than one-tenth of 1 per cent. 



320 



The Upward Path 



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Appendixes 



321 



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322 



The Upward Path 



APPENDIX J 

Per cent. Negro in total population, for the 55 counties having at least 
75 per cent. Negro in total population, 1900.' 



COUNTY IN ORDER OF 

DECREASING PER 

CENT. NEGRO. 



Issaquena, Miss. . . 

Tensas, La 

Madison, La 

East Carroll, La. . . 

Beaufort, S. C 

Tunica, Miss 

Washington, Miss. 
Coahoma, Miss. . . . 

Leflore, Miss 

Bolivar, Miss 

Sharkey, Miss 

Concordia, La 

Chicot, .\rk 

Lowndes, Ala 

Greene, .A.la 

West P'eliciana, La 

Lee, Ga 

Noxubee, Miss. . . . 
Crittenden, Ark. . . 

Dallas, Ala 

Sumter, Ala 

Dougherty, Ga 

Bullock, Ala 

Burke, Ga 

Desha, Ark 

Hale, Ala 

Macon, Ala 

Jefferson, Miss 



Per cent. 
Negro 
in total 
popu- 
lation: 
1900. 



94.0 
93.5 
92.7 
91.6 



90 
90 
89 

88 
88 
88. 
88. 
87. 
87. 
86. 



86.3 



86.2 
85.4 
84.8 
84.6 
83.0 
82.7 
82.1 
81.7 
81.7 
81.7 
81.7 
81.6 
81.1 



COUNTY IN ORDER OF 
DECREASING PER 
CENT. NEGRO. 



Leon, Fla 

Wilcox, Ala 

Madison, Miss , 

Wilkinson, Miss 

Berkeley, S. C 

Adams, Miss 

Phillips, Ark 

Perry, Ala 

Bossier, La 

Russell, Ala 

Claiborne, Miss 

Holmes, Miss 

Jefferson, Fla 

Lee, Ark 

Mcintosh, Ga 

West Baton Rouge, La, 

Yazoo, Miss 

Marengo, Ala 

Quitman, Miss 

Georgetown, S. C 

Morehouse, La 

Warwick, Va 

Fairfield, S. C 

Lowndes, Miss 

Hinds, Mi.ss 

Houston, Ga 

Sunflower, Miss 



Per 

cent. 
Negro 
in total 
popu- 
lation: 
1900. 



80.4 
80.4 
79.8 
79.6 
78.7 
78.6 
78.6 
78.5 
78.2 
78.1 
78.0 
77.9 
77.9 
77.8 
77.7 



77 

77 

76 

76 

76 

76 

76 

76.0 

75.5 

75.2 

75.1 

75.0 



Negroes in the United States, Bulletin 8. 



APPENDIX K 

Per cent, illiterate in Negro population at least 10 years of age: 
1900 and 1890.' 



STATE OR TERRITORY HAVING 

AT LEAST 500 NEGROES 10 

YEARS OF AGE AND 

OVER IN 1900. 



Louisiana 

Alabama 

South Carolina 

Georgia 

Mississippi 

North Carolina 

Virginia 

Arkansas 

Indian Territory. . . . 

Tennessee 

Kentucky 

Florida 

Texas 

Delaware 

Maryland 

West Virginia 

Missouri 

Oklahoma 

District of Columbia 

Indiana 

Kansas 

New Mexico 

Iowa 

Illinois 

Ohio 

New Jersey 

Wyoming 

Pennsylvania 

Vermont 

Maine 

Rhode Island 

California 

Colorado 

Arizona 

New Hampshire .... 

Nebraska 

Washington 

Connecticut 

Montana 

Wisconsin 

Michigan 

New York 

Massachusetts 

Oregon 

Minnesota 

Utah 



PER CENT. ILLITERATE 

IN NEGRO 

POPULATION AT 

LEAST 10 YEARS 

OF AGE. 



1900 



61.1 
57.4 
52.8 
52.4 
49.1 
47.6 
44.6 
43.0 
42.8 
41.6 
40.1 
38.4 
38.2 
38.1 
35.1 
32.3 
28.1 
26.0 
24.3 
22.6 
22.3 
19.1 
18 
18 
17 
17 
17 
15 
14 
14 
14 
13 
13.0 
12.7 
11.9 
11.8 
11.6 
11.5 
11.4 
11.4 
10.9 
10.8 
10.7 
8.8 
7.9 
6.3 



1890 



72.1 
69.1 
64.1 
67.3 
60.8 
60.1 
57.2 
53.6 



54.2 

55.9 

50.5 

52.5 

49.5 

50.1 

44.5 

41.7 

39.0 

35.0 

32.3 

32.8 

45 

26 

26 

25 

28 

17 

23 

20 



15.9 



18 

26 

17 

19 

22 

19 

17 

15 

11.0 

20.0 

18.9 

17 

14 

17 

12 

26 



Decrease 
in per 

cent, illit- 
erate: 
1890 to 
1900. 



11.0 



11. 
11. 
14. 
11, 
12 
12 
10 



12.6 

15.8 

12.1 

14.3 

11.4 

15.0 

12.2 

13.6 

13.0 

10.7 

9.7 

10.5 

26.7 

7.6 

8.7 

7.6 

10.9 

0.6 

8.1 

5.8 

1.7 

4.0 

13.1 

4.6 

6. 

10. 



.5 
.6 
.3 
.1 
.8 
.4 
.6 



6. 
3. 

20. 

8. 
8.0 
6.3 
3.6 
8.3 
4.2 
20 3 



* Negroes in the United States, Bulletin 8. 
2 Increase. 



APPENDIX L 

Negro population at least 10 years of age engaged in specific 
occupations: 1900 and 1890.^ 



OCCUPATION. 



Continental United States: 
All occupations 

Occupations giving employ- 
ment to at least 10,000 
negroes in 1900 

Agricultural laborers.. . 

Farmers, planters, and 
overseers 

Laborers (not specified) 

Servants and waiters. . 

Launderers and laun- 
dresses 

Draymen, hackmen, 
teamsters, etc 

Steam railroad em- 
ployees 

Miners and quarrymen. 

Saw and planing mill 
employees 

Porters and helpers (in 
stores, etc.) 

Teachers and professors 
in colleges, etc 

Carpenters and joiners. 

Turpentine farmers and 
laborers 

Barbersand hairdressers 

Nurses and midwives. . 

Clergymen 

Tobacco and cigar fac- 
tory operatives 

Hostlers 

Masons (brick and stone) 

Dressmakers 

Iron and steel workers. 

Seamstresses 

Janitors and sextons. . . 

Housekeepers and stew- 
ards 

Fishermen and oyster- 
men 

Engineers and firemen 
(not locomotive) .... 

Blacksmiths 

Other occupations 



NEGRO POPULATION AT LEAST 10 
YEARS OF AGE ENGAGED IN GAIN- 
FUL OCCUPATIONS. 



1900 



3,992,337 



3,807,008 



1,344,125 

757,822 
545,935 
465,734 

220,104 

67,585 

55,327 
36,561 

33,266 

28,977 

21,267 
21,113 

20,744 
19,942 
19,431 
15,528 

15,349 
14,496 
14,386 
12,569 
12,327 
11,537 
11,536 

10,596 

10,427 

10,224 
10,100 



1890 



3,073,164 



22,917,169 



1,106,728 

590,666 
349,002 
401,215 

153,684 

43,963 

47,548 
19,007 

17,276 

11.694 

15,100 
22,581 

(*) 

17,480 

5,213 

12,159 

15,004 
10,500 
9,760 
7,586 
6,579 
11,846 
5,945 

9,248 

10.071 

6,326 
10,988 



185,329 5155,995 



Increase: 
1890 to 1900. 



Num- 
ber. 



Per 

cent. 



919,173i 29.9 



2869,095 =29.8 



237,397 

167,156 

196,933 

64,519| 

66,420[ 

23,622 

7,779 
17,554 

15,990 

17,283 

6,167 

31.468 



21.5 

28.3 
56.4 
16.1 

43.2 

53.7 

16.4 
92.4 

92.6 

147.8 

40.8 
36.5 



2,462 

14,218 
3,369 

345 
3,996 
4,626 
4,983 
5,748 

3309 
5,591 

1,348 

356 

3,898 



14.1 

272.7 
27.7 

2.3 

38.1 
47.4 
65.7 
87.4 
32.6 
94.0 

14.6 

3.5 

61.6 

38. 1 



«50,078' 532.1 



' Negroes in the United States, Bulletin 8. 

Excludes turpentine farmers and laborers. ' Decrease. 

^ Turpentine farmers and laborers were included in "other agricul- 
tural pursuits" in 1890. ^ Includes turpentine farmers and laborers. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Abolition, disapproval of, 69, 
234; first cry for, from 
Great Britain, 68 

Abolitionists, activities of, 
69 

Africa, condition of the Ne- 
gro in, xiii, 2, 6-28; con- 
trol of and gold in, sought 
by European people, 6; 
part from which slaves 
chiefly came, 8, 9 ; peopled 
largely by two Negro types, 
5; rediscovery by Portu- 
guese, 6 ; superstitions 
brought from, by the Ne- 
groes, 26, 27, 54-56, 180- 
182 

African, children, 16, 17; fet- 
ichism or paganism, see 
Fetichism; mothers and 
fathers, 16, 17. See also 
Negro, in Africa 

African Methodist Episcopal 
Zion Church, 243 

Allen, Bishop Richard, re- 
ferred to, 242 _ 

Amendment, Fifteenth, 80, 
86; Thirteenth, 84 

American Federation of La- 
bor, 114 

Andrews, Bishop, 237 

Army of Occupation, 86 

Asset of the nation, the Negro 
a valuable, xviii 

Atlanta, churches of, 252 

Atlanta University, 247 ; 
Publications, quoted, 134, 
135, 137, 244, 257, 259 

Atlantic Monthly, quoted, 80 



Bangs, Nathan, quoted, 242 

Banks, Negro, 136 

Bantus, the, 7, 211; Negroes 
of United States largely 
from, 8 

Baptist Church, 244; in At- 
lanta, 252; predominance 
in Black Belt, 248; work 
among Negroes, 225, 226 

Beach, Harlan P., quoted, 
107 

Beaty, Rev. L. F., quoted on 
plantation missions, 229- 
232 

Benevolence, cooperative, 
135, 136 

Bible, 277; study of, 279, 
280, 281, 288 

Birth-rate, Negro, 174 

"BlackArt,"23-26, 55, 56 

Black Belt, churches in, 248, 
249 ; need of forward cam- 
paign in, 259 

"Black Harry," 279 

Bone of contention, the Negro 
a, xviii 

Brown, Rev. William Wash- 
ington, referred to, 132 

Bushmen, the, 7, 210 

Business man, the Negro as a, 
136-138 

Campaign, a forward gospel, 

needed, 259 
Capers, Bishop, 229, 231, 235, 

237 
"Carpet-bagger," 80, 86, 94 
Catholics, Roman, 62, 191, 

242, 246 



328 



Index 



Caucasian, civilization, 5 ; 
Negro, three classes of, 
211, 212; race, 6, 7, 10, 
98, 210 

Census of the United States, 
Twelfth, map from, show- 
ing Negro distribution, 
316; tables from, relating 
to Negro, 110, 166, 317-324 

Chamberlain, Governor, 

quoted, 85 

Chicago, 257 

Child-labor, 123 

Christ, see Jesus Chirst 

Christian Church, the (Dis- 
ciples of Christ), 242, 245 

Christianity, acceptance of, 
25 ; test of, by Negro prob- 
lem, XV ; thwarted among 
Negroes, 91 

Church, benevolent societies 
of, 130; destroyed by war, 
90; efforts to win the 
slaves to Christ, 60-62; 
in large cities, 256-258; 
organizations, 240-247 ; so- 
cial center, 251 ; united ef- 
fort to Christianize present 
Negro population, 270- 
275; work of, 239, 240 

Civil War, cause of, 71; end 
of, 71; Negro population 
before, 43 ; political antag- 
onism of, 70 

Clubs, benefit of, 285 

Colleges, need of, 197; work 
of, 205; would gain by 
concentration, 206, 207 

Colored Methodist Episcopal 
Church, 243, 244 

Color line, the, 293, 294 

Conference, General, action 
in 1800 against slavery, 232 

Congregational Church, 242, 
245 

Cooking schools, 285 



Cooperation, economic, 130 
Cotton-gin, invention of, 68 
Crandall, Prudence, perse- 
cuted for teaching colored 
girls, 234, 235 
Crime, Negro, 166-173; char- 
acter of, 166, 168; list of 
causes, 166-172; miscar- 
riage of justice, 172, 173 
Culture, soul and mental, 264 
Cumberland Presbyterian 
Church, 245 

Davis, Rev. Samuel, ministry 

of, 224 
Deaconesses, colored, 281, 

286, 287 
Death, 18; result of witch- 
craft, 23 
Death-rate, 175; causes for, 

176-179 
Dowd, Jerome, quoted, 7, 8 
Drummond, quoted, 108 
Drunkenness prevented 

among slaves, 49 
DuBois, Dr. W. E. B., 

quoted, 128, 196; referred 

to, 115,206 
Dunbar, Paul Lawrence, 

quoted, 301 
Dyer, Prof. G. W., quoted, 

41,42 

Early, Bishop, 237 

Economic problem of Negro, 
115 

Edwards, Harry Stillwell, 
quoted, 106, 144 

Education, advantages fur- 
nished by Church and 
State, 188; Christian, 189; 
freedmen's need of, 187; 
gains of, 188, 189; Report 
of the United States Com- 
missioner of, 195; the 
South 's interest in, 118, 119 



Index 



329 



Elks, order of, 135 

Emancipation, 7 ; effect upon 
household servants, 122 

Emotion to have proper ex- 
pression, 259-264 

England, large part in slave- 
trade, 35, 36 

Ethical development, hope 
for, 259, 263, 264 

Ethiopian race, 5 

Evangelists, Negro, need of, 
278; work of, 279 

Evangelization, task de- 
volved upon, 27, 257-264 

Evolution, working of, 4, 214, 
215 

Farmers' Improvement So- 
ciety, 137, 138 

Farmville Institutional 

Church, 250 

"Federal Power," 70 

Fellatahs, the, 7, 8 

Fetich, defined, 20, 21 ; prep- 
aration of, 21, 22; sup- 
posed power of, 21, 22 

Fetichism, 2, 19-26; export- 
ed to United States and the 
West Indies, 26, 54-56; 
two kinds of, 22, 23 

Financial Embarrassment of 
South, 96, 97 

Fitzgerald, Bishop, 237 

Foa, quoted, 17 

Fox, referred to, 36 

Franchise, exercise of, 76, 147 

Freedmen's Bureau, 66; 79, 
80, 86, 89; schools of, 192, 
195 

Free Masons, 134 

Frissel, Dr. H. B., quoted, 258 

Gallas, the, 8 

Galloway, Bishop Charles B., 
quoted, 186, 220, 268 



Gambling prevented among 

slaves, 49 
Garrison, William Lloyd, 

mobbed in Boston, 234 
Grand Order of the Galilean 

Fisherman, 135 
Grant, referred to, 71 
Groups, racial, 210-213 
Guinea Coast, 210 

Hall, Dr. G. Stanley, quoted, 

87-89, 175 
Hamilton, Alexander, Jr., 

129 
Hamitic Negro, the, 211 
Hampton Institute, 150, 151, 
258 ; model industrial 
school, 202; trade schools, 
204 
Harrison and Barnes, quoted, 

233, 236 
Hill, Chancellor, quoted, 173 
Holmes, E. H., quoted, 129 
Holy Spirit, the, 60, 61, 238 

277 
Home life, 145, 146, 152-154 
Home owners, 148 
Home Mission Boards, 271, 

287 
Home Missions Council, a 
federation of Home Mis- 
sion Boards, 271 ; work for 
Negro, 272-275 
Homes, 148-151 
Hottentots, the, 7, 210 
Hubbard, Dr. G. W., quoted, 
207 

Institutions, State, 196 
Israelites, exodus of, 33; in- 
cident of Babylonish cap- 
tivity, 33 

Jeanes, Miss Anna P., gift of, 

199 
Jefferson, Thomas, attempt 



Forward Mission Study Courses 



" Anywhere, provided it he forward." — David Living- 
stone." 



Prepared under the direction of the 
YOUNG PEOPLE'S MISSIONARY MOVEMENT 

OP THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 

Editorial Committee: T. H. P. Sailer, Chairman, 
A. E. Armstrong, T. B, Ray, H. B. Grose, S. Earl Tay- 
lor, J. E. McAfee, C. R. Watson, John W. Wood, L. B. 
Wolf. 

The forward mission study courses are an outgrowth of 
a conference of leaders in young people's mission work, 
held in New York City, December, 1901. To meet the 
need that was manifested at that conference for mission 
study text-books suitable for young people, two of the 
delegates, Professor Amos R. Wells, of the United Society 
of Christian Endeavor, and Mr. S. Earl Taylor, Chairman 
of the General Missionary Committee of the Epworth 
League, projected the Forward Mission Study Courses. 
These courses have been officially adopted by the Young 
People's Missionary Movement, and are now under the 
immediate direction of the Editorial Committee of the 
Movement. The books of the Movement are now being 
used by more than forty home and foreign mission boards 
and societies of the United States and Canada. 

The aim is to publish a series of text-books covering 
the various home and foreign mission fields aud written 



by leading authorities. The entire series when completed 
will comprise perhaps as many as forty text-books. 

The following text-books having a sale of nearly 
600,000 have been pubUshed: 

1. The Price of Africa. (Biographical.) By S. Earl 
Taylor. 

2. Into All the \A^orld. A general survey of missions. 
By Amos R. Wells. 

3. Princely Men in the Heavenly Kingdom. (Bio- 
graphical.) By Harlan P. Beach. 

4. Sunrise in the Sunrise Kingdom. A study of 
Japan. By John H. De Forest. 

5. Heroes of the Cross in America. Home Missions. 
(Biographical.) By Don O. Shelton. 

6. Daybreak in the Dark Continent. A study of Af- 
rica. By Wilson S. Naylor. 

7. The Christian Conquest of India. A study of 
India. By James M. Thoburn. 

8. Aliens or Americans? A study of Inimigration. 
By Howard B. Grose. 

g. The Uplift of China. A study of Chma. By 
Arthur H. Smith. 

10. The Challenge of the City. A study of the City. 
By Josiah Strong. 

11. The Why and How of Foreign Missions. A 
study of the relation of the home Church to the foreign 
missionary enterprise. By Arthur J. Brown. 

12. The Moslem World. A study of the Moham- 
medan World. By Samuel M. Zwemer. 

13. The Frontier. A study of the New West. By 
Ward Piatt. 

14. South America : Its Missionary Problems. A 
study of South America. By Thomas B. Neely. 

15. The Upward Path : The Evolution of a Race. A 
study of the Negro. By Mary Helm. 

16. Korea in Transition. A study of Korea. By 
James S. Gale. 



In addition to these courses, the following have been 
published especially for use among younger persons: 

1. Uganda's White Man of Work. The story of Alex- 
ander Mackay of Africa. By Sophia Lyon Fahs. 

2. Servants of the King. A series of eleven sketches 
of famous home and foreign missionaries. By Robert E. 
Speer. 

3. Under Marching Orders. The Story of Mary Por- 
ter Gamewell of China. By Ethel Daniels Hubbard. 

These books are published by mutual arrangement 
among the home and foreign mission boards, to whom 
all orders should be addressed. They are bound uni- 
formly and are sold at 50 cents, in cloth, and 35 cents, 
in paper; postage, 8 cents extra. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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